Finding The Cure
by Ericlau99
Summary: The life of the average wizard has become less and less prominent as time moves forward. Yes, there have been many advances in the wizarding world, but they have been mediocure compared to the achievements of their muggle counterparts. Here, we follow the life of Harry Potter as he becomes something more than the average wizard. On his journey to find knowledge and change the world
1. Chapter 1

AN:/ Hey guys this is the first chapter of my new book which I call 'Finding The Cure'. Sorry it took longer than I thought it would take to write the first chapter and will probably take from 2-4 weeks between chapters. I'm sort of adopting the idea from the story 'Knowledge is Power' rewritten by Nkari127. You guys should read it because it's probably my favorite fic. Right up there with 'The Sorting Hat's Stand' by Landstradd, you should read both of them. Knowledge is Power is no longer being written and The Sorting Hat's Stand will have a new chapter being written about every 1-2 months. If you liked Knowledge is Power, there is another story being written like the one I'm going to write called 'Wit Beyond Measure' by AntonXIV. Write as many reviews as you can and correct me on any mistakes I make, but just don't be assholes and say that my story can go take one up the asshole. If you don't like it, don't read it. Anyway, let's just get on with the story.

I don't own Harry Potter and no one does but J.K. Rowling

Chapter 1

It was a bright sunny morning on the day of July 31, 2007. Especially at the luxurious looking Potter Manor. The birds were out, the sun was shining, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was all very peaceful.

That is until you went inside the Manor…

"REMUS! As soon as this sticking charm wears off my ass, I am going to throttle you!"

"No way Harry! This is payback for hanging me by my underwear from the chandelier, I still have no idea how you did that!"

"That was for twenty minutes! That's nothing compared to having your ass cheeks stuck to the ceiling for an hour! And on my birthday nonetheless? I thought we agreed, no pranking on the holidays."

"That was before the wedgie incident. I've still got a rash where you never want one!"

"Oh but my dear Remus, of course you know this means war until I go to school."  
>Remus Lupin gulped. He definitely didn't want a prank war breaking loose, especially since his nephew (The one with his ass cheeks stuck to the ceiling) was getting his wand today. The things that that kid could do without a wand... Remus didn't even want to think about what would happen if war broke out and he had a wand. Remus has had nightmares about it, and his sandy-brown hair already had enough gray in it. He didn't want any more!<p>

"Alright, alright you win." Remus replied as he canceled the sticking charm and levitated his nephew down to the ground

"Damn right I win!" His nephew said "Ahh Dammit! I lost feeling in my right ass cheek!"  
>Remus chuckled. 'Harry really did have a way with words' Remus thought 'It was one of the traits he inherited from his mother.'<p>

Remus' eyes darkened as he thought oh his mother. On that fateful night of November 1, 1999, the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. came to Godric's Hollow to find information on their lost master. James and Lily Potter had fought their very hardest against their foes and had nearly beaten them, when a killing curse was thrown at Lily. James flung himself in the way of said curse to save her from death. In a rampage from seeing her husband die, Lily took out two of the three targets left. The last death eater left was Belatrix Lestrange. Unfortunately, Belatrix had seen the Potter heir, Harry Potter, hiding in the closet. The crazed woman shot a killing curse at the small boy peeking through the crack in the door. Fortunately, Lily had seen this and did as her husband had done for her and dived in front of the incoming curse. But something odd happened, instead of banishing her soul from her body, the curse reflected off of her and back at Belatrix.

Lily Potter was thrown into a coma. The healers had taken as good of care of her as they could, but could not wake her. From what they could find out from little Harry, Neville Longbottom was not the only one to survive the killing curse. But why was Neville awake and Lily in a coma? The healers could never find out. Harry never left her side for two months after the accident and always visited her on Christmas and on his Birthday, preferring to spend those holidays by her side.

Since that day, despite Harry's brief stay at an orphanage, Harry and Remus had never been apart. So when Harry starts going to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, Remus' life would be pretty boring.

Harry James Potter had a slight tan and jet black bird's nest hair. Hidden behind a pair of glasses, his eyes were the same green as his mother's. He was a very self reliant child. He never asked Remus for help except when he needed an adults help. He was also very studious, which is not saying that it was all study and no play. Harry had a very active athletic life as well. Harry played Football in the Spring and American Football in the fall (AN:/For the sake of confusion, I'll call Football Soccer and American Football Football). Harry started playing football when his soccer team went across seas to play in a tournament, and Harry saw some kids playing football and immediately fell in love with the sport. So in the fall months, you could find Harry and Remus in Austin Texas playing Football.

With all the Football and Soccer, Harry's 4ft. 8in. frame was a very athletic one.  
>"So Remus, what's the plan today? Gonna go to Diagon and then St. Mungo's?" Harry asked as he rubbed his ass cheeks north and south.<p>

"We'll go to Diagon and Knocktun, I need to pick up somethings from the Knockturn Apothcary. Then we'll go to Mungo's."

"That sounds good. Let's go eat." Harry said and then raced down into the kitchen  
>Now Harry maybe self-reliant now, but when Remus had first taken him in he had been a mess having just witnessed an attack on his parents. But when Harry was old enough, around 6 years old, and old enough to understand what had happened tha night, Harry had come to Remus and opened up to him. He expressed willingness, no, a need for knowledge that Remus couldn't help but provide. He read every book he could get his hands on, he absorbed all of Remus' lessons like a sponge to water.<p>

"Master Harry and Master Moon-Moon! Please sit. How is yous this morning?" A small house elf asked

"I'm great Mipsy besides that pedophile-"

"Hey!"

"-over there pulling down my pants and sticking my ass to the ceiling. And I'll be a lot better once I get some of your and Alfred's fine cooking in my stomach." Harry replied

"Yous is to kind Master Harry, to kind." Mipsy replied with a blush "And yous!" Mipsy said pointing a wooden spoon at Remus "Will stop pranking Master Harry!" She then proceeded to beat Remus over the head with the spoon much to Harry's amusement and Remus' displeasure.

They had sort of adopted Mipsy after they found her wandering magical New York. Harry had taken an immediate liking to her and asked if she wanted to work for them and she readily agreed. Alfred is the Potter family and was taken in by the Potters around two years before Harry was born. The Reason they called Remus Master Moon-Moon was because James called Remus Moony which Alfred took a liking to. So when Alfred took Mipsy under his wing, the name transferred to her too. Alfred did most of the cooking and Mipsy did most of the cleaning.

"So Harry, what Hogwarts house do you think you'll be in?" Remus asked as he sipped his coffee and rubbed the spoon shaped bruise on his head

"I really don't know and I really don't care. I personally think the whole house system is stupid. I mean it promotes school segregation and will most likely change your personality. Take Slytherin for example, it's the house of cunning and ambitious right? But as soon as you're sorted there three fourths of the school hate you and think you're evil. When you get sorted, you're eleven! How can you be evil?" Harry explained without looking up from his book.

"Uhhhh… Ok? My bet's on Ravenclaw, you're too smart for your own good. And the way you just analyzed the house system is definitely Raven nature." Said the amused man.

"Anyway, let's go before all the people get there, I wanna beat the rush." Harry said 

* * *

><p>"I know we usually apparate directly into the shoppinng disrict, but it's tradition to come through the muggle way when you first get your school supplies." Remus said as Harry walked out of the flu and into a dirty old pub<p>

Remus then proceeded to lead Harry to the back of the pub and straight to a brick wall. Remus then tapped what seemed to be a random series of bricks on the wall.  
>Harry watched on as the wall split in half with the bricks collapsing inside of one another. Even Harry's cool façade could not keep the amazed look on his face as he entered Diagon Alley. Harry had been to Diagon before, but coming in through the muggle way did make the experience more special. There were weird signs for quidditch shops where kids were crowding around the new Comet 260, Apothecaries that had a sale on lacewing flies, and Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC.<p>

"Do you have my list?" Harry asked whil admiring the broomstick in the window.

remus wordlessly handed him his list.

It read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September (or when you happen to register). We await your owl by no Later then 31st of July.

Yours Sincerely

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

HOWGARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Uniform

First year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

Set Books

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

Other Equipment

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl, cat or toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

"No Broomsticks? Damn, I was hoping that since I couldn't play soccer or football I could at least try Quiditch."

"Yeah well we all had to live with it. Now first stop, Gringotts." Remus said with a frown

Remus hated taking money out of the Potter vault. But due to Remus' health condition, being a werewolf and all, finding a job wasn't so easy.  
>They finally came to a stop in front of a big pearly white building that was towering above all the other buildings in the alleyway. There was two armed goblins standing in front of the building wearing black and gold, gem studded armor. They were holding razor sharp spears that were twice as tall as they are.<p>

There was a Plaque on the wall that caught Harry's eye. It read:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

It basically gave Harry the feeling that the message the goblins were trying to send was 'Don't fuck with us or you will most likely find your head on a pike in our dungeons.'

They walked in the large bank and got in line before the nearest teller booth. Harry was trying to get a good look at all the goblins. He actually found them to be very amusing to watch. The was that the sneered at every witch and wizard that walked into the bank. And how they smiled in that sinister way where every one of their razor sharp teeth was showing. They basically made it their mission to hate every last human.

Finally it was their turn. The two walked up to the teller but for some reason the goblin didn't sneer at them.

"How may I help you today?" The goblin said completely ignoring Harry and talking to Remus alone.

"Good morning Mr. Spearclaw." Remus said "We would like to withdraw money from the Potter trust vault for Mr. Harry James Potter if you would please."  
>The goblin seemed to just notice Harry's presence.<p>

"I see." Spearclaw sneered "And does Harry Potter have his Key?"

Remus fished an intricate looking gold key with the Potter Family crest on it. The goblin examined the key for a minute. Before declaring that it was a real Gringotts key.

"Everything seems to be in order." The goblin said "Very well. Griphook! Takes Misters Potter and Lupin to the Potter Trust vault."

A small Goblin came scurrying out of a door behind the counter.

"Right this way please." Griphook said

They were on a cart with two other families. Harry found it kind of rude when the other families would try to take a look in the other's vault. Harry didn't much care, galleons were galleons. But it was funny to see the goblins whack them on the shins with a cane if they stepped of the cart. Harry guessed that this was the goblin's favorite job.

Finally they got to nine hundred and seventy three.

"Come on Harry, this is your vault." Remus said

Once they opened the vault, the other families gasped. The vault was filled with galleons, probably three times more than theirs put together. Harry just shrugged and started placing an impossible amount in a bottomless bag.

After another fifteen minute cart ride back to the lobby of Gringotts, Harry and Remus were back in Diagon Alley.

"Ok, where do you want to do first? The Apothecary, Flourish and Blotts, Trunks 'n' Things." Remus asked jokingly already knowing his nephew's answer

But seeing Harry's scowl he threw out the joking attitude.

"Alright fine, lets go to Ollivander's so you'll stop pouting like a five year old gi- OW! DAMMIT!" Remus cried when his sentence was cut off by Harry's swift kick to the shin.

Harry heard the bell above the door ring as he walked in.

"Ahhhh, Mr. Potter." A voice from behind him said "It seems like only yesterday that your parents were in here buying their first wands. Your Mother favored a wand of 10¼ inches made willow, swishy, good for charms work. While your Father favored a wand of mahogany, 11 inches, pliable, excellent for transfiguration. And I assume that you'll be here to get your first wand as well?" Mr. Ollivander asked

Mr. Ollivander had eyes as silver as his hair. He was short and probably had more wrinkles than Dumbledore.

"No I'm Just here to admire the view as wonderful as it is." Harry said as the door bell jingled again.

"Ah, cheeky eh? Just like your father. And who do we have here? 12 inches, Oak, and Dragon Heartstring from a very old Ukrainian Ironbelly. Yes, Good to see you Mr. Lupin." The old man replied

"Very good to see you to Mr. Ollivander. I hope my five year old niece over there-"

"Shut-it Moony!"

"-isn't bothering you much." Remus asked with fake concern

Mr. Ollivander chuckled. "Oh of course not! I Just find the youths of our day to be very amusing if I do say so myself."

"Now shall we get to finding young Mr. Potter's wand?" The man asked pulling out a tape measure "Which is your wand arm?"

"I'm right handed sir." Harry said as the tape measure was making pointless measurements about his body.

"Ahh, Pine, 13 inches, dragon heartstring. Good for battle magic." The man said  
>As soon as Harry grabbed it, it was taken away just as fast.<p>

"No, no, no. Try this maple, 10 ½ inches, unicorn hair. Nope diffidently not. How about this…"

45 minutes and 74 wands later.

"Tricky customer ehh? Excuse me for a minute Me. Potter." Mr Ollivander said "I'll be right back" The silver eyed man headed towards the back of his shop.

Harry took this as a chance to wake to sleeping werewolf in the corner via swift kick to the shin.

"What the He-" Remus cried before he was cut off by Mr. Ollivander

"Here we are." Mr. Ollivander said as he carried a dusty wood chest. "The Ollivander Masterpieces. All of these wands are completely original."

The silver eyed man started laying wand boxes out on the counter.

"Ok Mr. Potter, take your right hand and let it hover over the boxes until you feel something." The wandmaker said

Harry did so and passed twelve boxes until he felt a tingly sensation coming from one box in particular.

"That one." Harry said

Mr. Ollivander smiled, took the wand box, opened it, looked back at Harry, back at the wand box, back to Harry, and then promptly fainted

A swift enervate from Remus later, and the man was conscious once more.

"I apologize for collapsing like that." He said with embarrassment. "It's just you gave me a rather large shock, you see. I believed that I would never sell that wand, it was an experiment of one of my ancestors many generations ago."

Harry looked inside the box. A stick. A stick is exactly what it looked like. There were no special carvings, no polished gleam, just a plain old 10 ½ inch stick that you could pick up off the ground.

"It looks like nothing special sir." Harry answered

"Looks can be deceiving my boy." Mr. Ollivander said with happiness glowing in his eyes "That particular wand has the wood of a three thousand year old Bonsai tree grown in the Alps in the Himalayas, the whole wand is the tree's trunk. The core has the heartstring of a Phoenix, the hair of a thestral, and the whisker of a nundu. But the most curious thing yet, a rod of Mithril, the rarest metal on the planet. It's only mined by the dwarves and goblins who are fiercely protective of it." The old man paused tothink about what to say next

"Traditionally wands don't have more than one core, when different parts of different magical species mix together, the reactions are uncontrolled like a wrongly mixed potion would be. But here we have an example of all the cores working together in harmony... Well at least I think they do, seeing as I have never been able to use it."

Harry picked up the wand and nothing happened. But then a silver light started to shine frrom the tip of the wand. It got brighter and brighter until the two adults had to shield their eyes from it. Finally the light died down, and the two men looked to see Harry holding his wand, with his eyes closed, and an imaginary breeze blowing his hair around.

"Well that's something different." Remus muttered

"Whoa." Harry said. The wand was humming in his hand, when Harry touched it, it felt like his body temp. had gone from -5F to 135 F in less than three seconds.

"Whoa is right Mr. Potter." The wandmaker said "The wand is yours free of charge for giving an old man a very exciting day. But I must warn you, I think it would be best for you to learn Occlumency. For if someone found out the cores of your wand would be very bad. Altogether, the cores would probably cost around 750,000 galleons, a fortune in itself."

Harry was about to ask what Occlumency was when Remus cut him off.

"Werewolves are natural Occlumences due to us having to keep the wolf instincts locked up, it should be easy to teach him. Good day Mr. Ollivander." Remus said

"Good day Mr. Lupin, good day indeed."

Harry and Remus left the wand shop to go get some lunch. Remus was thinking about how lucky his nephew is while Harry was thinking about all the aspects of his wand. His wand had some if not the most rare magical substances on the planet. Phoenix Heartstring, as far as Harry knew, Phoenix's were immortal with their re-birthing process and all. The phoenix would either have to willingly die or have it's heartstring removed before it would burst into flames. And then there was a Thestral hair? Harry didn't even think Thestrals had hairs. A nundu whisker! They were the most deadly creatures on the planet, it took over 100 well trained wizards just to take one down. But then there was the rod of mithril. The metal of myths, what the dwarfs used to create armor for their kings. It was probably the rarest core of them all. Harry could only guess how the metal would affect his casting.

After lunch they started to gather all the other things on the list. They started of with Madame Malkin's and got five plane black robes, five plane black pairs of slacks, several scarves and ties, and a black cardigan.

They stopped at the Apothecary and got all of the needed ingredients for potions. The smell of all the ingredients made their eyes water so they got out of there as fast as they could.

They even got Harry a top of the line telescope which could see much farther than any normal muggle telescope. It could even highlight the constellations while you looked through it.

Their last stop was Flourish and Blotts. Along with Harry's school books, He bought every book that he thought would be useful to him including; 'Charms For The Charmed' by George Makis, 'Animation Made Easy' by Alex Santos, 'Transfigure The World' by Julia Garman, 'The Animal Within' by Charles Patchet, 'The Big Book Of Runes' by Boabo Ustafa, 'Arithmacy: More Than Just Numbers' by Susan Glyn, 'How To Brew Without Failure' by Justin Jones, and 'The Big Book Of Magical Herbs' by Karen Greenstien.

"Alright cub, I have to go do 'you know what' in 'you know where' and I'll be back in half an hour." Remus said, trying to be inconspicuous and failing miserably at it.  
>Harry decided to take this chance to talk to the goblins about his inheritance, unfortunately, this only took ten minutes. So, what's a newly eleven year old boy to do in Diagon Alley with a boatload of galleons and no parental consent? Well go into the coolest looking store and spend all of his money in one place of course.<p>

The coolest looking shop just so happened to be one that sold dragonhide armor and magical weapons. The store had a big glass window in the front that showcased the most wicked looking blades Harry had ever seen.

Harry walked into the store "Hello?" Harry called

"What do you want?" A grizzled old man said

"Well, I think I wanna buy some dragonhide armor." Harry replied, ignoring the man's bitchy attitude.

"Are you kidding me kid?" The man, that Harry decided to call 'Bitchy' due to his attitude, said You'd just grow out of it in a year, no point in getting it right now. Come back when you're about two feet taller."

Harry wanted to argue but couldn't dispute Bitchy's logic.

"Can I at least buy a sword?" Harry almost whined

Bitchy eyed him critically a bit but shrugged his shoulders. "What the fuck, sure. Business is slow and if seling a weapon to a kid is what it takes to be paid, then I'll do it."

Five minutes later and 1500 galleons poorer, Harry walked out of Bitchy's store with a shrunken sword and sheath in his pocket. He met Remus outside Knockturn Alley.

"Ready to go to Mungos?"

"Yep, let's crack outta here."

And the two disapparated with a loud crack, on their way to St. Mungos.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:/Hey Guys this is the second chapter of Finding The Cure and I hope you like it. As per some of your questions yes the sword does have a role in this story, it just won't be the same sword by the end of this story. I do plan to keep on writing this. And I kinda had to make it similar to other stories like this one because i needed a starting place. Anyway keep on reviewing cause it gives me a better purpose to put in a new chapter faster and let me know if you see any grammar errors so i can go back and change them. Also if some of the movie/song release dates don't match up,just go with 's my fic. And if I want the movie 'Troy' to exist in 2001, then it can!**

I don't own Harry Potter J.K. Rowling does.

Chapter 2:

Harry and Remus appeared with a loud crack in the alleyway next to St. Mungo's. They had just gone through the glass barrier and talked to the creepy, faceless manikin in the window. They walked up to the woman front desk and flashed their visitor's passes. Recognition crossed the woman's face as she directed him to the permanent spell damage ward.

"Alright cub, I'm going to go to the bathroom if you don't mind." Remus said with a grim expression on his face. Coming to St. Mungo's always reminded him of the day when Lily first came in. The day he lost his three best friends and a woman he thought of a sister.

Harry nodded, knowing that Remus was only going to the bathroom to give Harry alone time. He headed of to room 49B. The lone occupant of the room was the reason Harry was alive, the reason that kept him on his path to find knowledge, and it was his goal in life to cure her, his mother. She laid un-movingly on the hospital bed. Her skin was pale from spending too much time inside and her normal vibrant auburn hair was a stringy brown colored mop. The only sign that she was alive was the steady rising and falling of her chest.

"Hi Mum, I'm back." Harry said with voice cracking slightly "I'm going to be going to Hogwarts in a month and Remus and I went to Diagon Alley to get my school things. I know it's my birthday and stuff and you'd probably be saying that I should be spending it with my friends, but you're the most important thing in my life. And besides, my birthday didn't start out that well anyway when I woke up this morning dangling from the ceiling by my..." Harry proceeded to have his one-sided conversation until he ran out of things to talk about. So he just spent the rest of the time sitting there, holding her hand, and listening to her steady breathing. Remus came to get him once visiting hours were over.

* * *

><p>Harry sat in his favorite chair in the Potter Library reading 'The Animal Within'. It was about the animagus transformation and the history of past animagi. 'It would be damn useful' Harry thought. According to this book, some of your senses were heightened to those of your animal since you basically meld your mind with that of the animal so you can call upon it's form when you want. As for the animal, you got to choose it, but it must be compatible with you. Like say that a cowardly person tried to become a lion, it would be damn near impossible for them to achieve it . And even if they did, it could possibly drive them insane.<p>

Along with reading some of the extra books the Harry picked out, he had finished all of his school books as well. Harry was slightly disappointed with the Hogwarts curriculum already. From what Remus had told him so far, he was about a year ahead already! Now he knew that he would be ahead, but not this far. Remus had taught him the wandless magic's which included Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, History Of Magic, and a little bit of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Now Harry just needed to get a little more practice with his wand and since Potter Manor was under the Fidelius Charm, He could do magic at the Manor (Which wasn't fair to other kids, but hey! Harry wasn't complaining).

Tomorrow was the day he left for Hogwarts and he was pretty excited. He would finally be able to see the place where his parents and the Marauders met. All of Remus' stories either took place at Potter Manor or at Hogwarts. Remus had told him about the Shrieking Shack, the secret passageways, the kitchens, how many times his Dad and Black, 'traitor' Harry thought, had gotten detention, how many times they pranked 'Snivellus', and how many failed attempts James had tried to ask Lily out on a date. But what Harry was probably most excited about was Hogwarts' extensive library. It was probably the largest collection of magical knowledge in all of Europe.

Harry had also been practicing with his new sword. He read books on how to use one and had watched Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, and Troy. So it couldn't be that hard to use on right? He'd been practicing a Japanese sword play exercise where you do a sequence of motions with the sword until you messed up. It wasn't really a style of fighting, it was more of just learning how to handle a blade and not kill yourself with it. Three days after they had gone to Diagon Alley, Remus had walked in on Harry putting the sword through its paces.

Flashback

"Harry I was wondering if yo-. What the Hell!" Remus exclaimed

Remus was going to ask Harry if he had seen his trench coat when he saw his 11 year old nephew do what seemed to be dancing with a shimmering deadly sword. It was a pretty frightening sight.

"What do you want Moony? Can't you see I'm busy?" Harry asked still doing his deadly dance.

"Yeah well I was wondering if you had seen my trench coat?" Remus asked still wondering what the hell his nephew was doing with a sword.

"Yeah, it's upstairs torn to shreds." Harry answered

"What! Why is it torn to shreds?"

"I needed a test dummy for my new hobby here, so I stuffed the coat with straw, put it on a stick, and went wild on it." Harry was still doing whatever it was he was doing with his sword.

"Ok? But why did you have to use my favorite coat? Where did you get a sword? What are you doing with said sword? And would you please stop doing it?" Remus asked, his brain finally catching up

"Well to answer your questions as simply as possible, I thought it would annoy you, Diagon Alley, Tsurgi it's a Japanese sword exercise, And no." Harry said as he kept going "This is the farthest I've gotten, I'm on my third circuit."

"I really hate you sometimes." Remus said as he shook his head

"I know, I try."

"You know when Lily wakes up she's going to kill me for letting her eleven year old son buy a sword." Remus said with fear

"You know that's what I never got about how we're not supposed to bring weapons to school. I could just as easily transfigure a piece of wood into a sword, or just use a cutting spell. If the school really didn't want us having weapons, they'd take away our wands." Harry said now on his fourth circuit

"Good point. Well, I'm off to buy me a new coat."

End of Flashback

Remus had gotten a nice new coat which Harry had ruined two days later.

Flashback

"Harry! You'd better not have my coat again!" Remus yelled as he walked into Harry's room.

There was Harry, who had a look on his face as if he was constipated. While doing a figure eight wand motion, pointing his wand at a figure on the floor playing jacks. The figure was tall, had a top hat, mask, trousers, gloves, boots, and Remus' coat!

"Stupefy!" Remus yelled but was alarmed when the figure exploded into torn cloths.

"What do you want? I'm busy!" Harry groaned with frustration

"I was looking for my coat, so I came in here looking for it. And I see you with somebody who's playing jacks on the floor while it looks like you're about to push a large shit out of your ass while you were pointing your wand at him." Remus explained

"I was practicing an animation exercise where you learn to control your animations." Harry explained. "That was a beginner exercise and your stupefy reacted badly with it since this was only a training exercise and not a practical spell."

"Well you didn't have to use my coat! And that's a beginner exercise for dueling protégées, not first years! I doubt I could even do it, back in sixth year, we were making teacups dance across the table."

"Well that's you, not me." Harry said "And besides, making tea cups dance is completely pointless. And this is not for 'Dueling Protégées' as you pointed out. A third year could do this spell, all you have to do is say the spell, do the wand motions, and concentrate like hell. All this exercise is, is to improve your control."

"Whatever, I'm going to get a new coat made out of Acromantula silk and dragonhide."

"Those materials are spell and sword resistant Moony, not spell and sword proof."

End of Flashback

Harry set down his book as he finished reminiscing. Remus' coat was now in his closet under numerous locking charms and anti-elf wards. 'Not that it would hold me for long' Harry thought 'Now, what to do on my last day before Hogwarts?'

"Mipsy!" Harry called

POP

"Yes master Harry?" The excited elf asked

"Since I'm going to be going to Hogwarts tomorrow, I'm going to take the Marauder route and go out with a bang that could take months to clean up."

The elf's large eyes got even larger.

"Let's start with Remus' coat shall we?"

* * *

><p>Harry Potter and Remus Lupin were walking through the crowded platforms of Kings Cross Station. Today was the day that Harry would be heading off to Hogwarts<p>

"Alright Harry you know what to do," Remus said "Run right through the wall between 9-"

But Harry was already gone.

"Cub, Wait up!" Remus called as he stepped through the barrier and promptly fell flat on his face, as he tripped over his nephews outstretched leg.

"Ah fuck, that hurt! Dammit Harry you black haired, speckled, little fuck. When I get my hands on yo-" Remus stopped when he saw every parent within a ten yard radius, had their hands over their children's ears, and were scowling at him. Remus looked back up to his godson's smirking face.

"Tut, tut Moony. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? But I must say that you sure can make an entrance." Harry smirked

"Yeah, Yeah shut it cub. Now that you made a majority of the magical parents in England hate me, let's say our quick goodbyes before some of these parents decide to gang rap me."

"If they do happen to gang rap you, just ask them to snap a few photos of the after result and send them to me. I've never had enough people to be able to gang rap you." Harry said offhandedly.

"Ok, moving onto more serious and less disturbing topics," Remus said quickly as some of the parents were still scowling in his direction. "I really am going to miss you Harry. You're all I got now, so don't go be getting yourself injured in any spectacular fashion unless I'm there to see it. I don't know what I'll do without you when you go to school."

"Well luckily for you Moony, I already thought ahead in your pathetic life-"

"Hey!"

"When you were 'doing you know what, in you know where.'" Harry said mentally laughing at his uncle's attempt to be discrete "Getting a sword was not all I did, I checked out Gringotts for any properties that the Potters own besides the cottage in Godric's Hollow, Potter Manor, and our condo in Texas. As it turns out, I own a shop in Knockturn Alley and I want you to have it."

"Harry I can't the Ministry-" Remus started

"Screw the Ministry! And besides, they can't do crap if I own the shop."

"What about money to get started?"

"Use my trust fund, you're as much family as Mum is. And all that money is doing right now is gathering dust. Use it for whatever you want, buy a colony of veelas for all I care."

"Harry I… You have no idea what this means to me." Remus said as tears started to form in his eyes.

"Remus! Don't cry while I'm around you, it's bad for my rep. And I do have one condition though."

"And what's that?"

"Get a goddamn date man! The last time you had a date was like two years ago and it was a disaster."

"Hey! Was not."

"As I recall, your date hooked up with the waiter who served you." Harry said with a smile

"I knew I shouldn't have told you about that." Remus muttered

"You bet your ass you shouldn't have." Harry smirked

"Have I ever told you that your vocabulary is about 5 years more developed than it should be? And not in a good way either."

"About once a week. Anyway Remus, seriously fix the place up into something that's yours and make sure you put up some wards for the place. We wouldn't want any were-haters to attack the place now would we?"

"Yeah I will, I promise. I guess this is goodbye Cub." Remus said voice cracking slightly

"Yeah I guess it is Moony." Harry gave Remus a brief hug (didn't want to ruin his non-existent rep.) and headed toward the scarlet steam engine.

Walking down the corridors of the Hogwarts Express and looking for an open compartment. Harry heard a voice whine,

"Argh! I hate chess, whoever invented chess sucks! I completely suck at it." The voice (recognizably male now) complained

"That's because you play with no strategy. You just wing it and hope you win." An irritated female voice answered

"That's the best kind of strategy, that way the person you're playing against will have no clue what you're doing." The male voice said

Harry peered into the compartment, there was a boy and a girl play chess. The boy had sandy-brown hockey hair that went past his ears. He had almond-shaped brown eyes, a slightly tan complexion, and some freckles on his face. From what Harry could tell, since he was sitting down, he was about four foot two inches. The girl who sat opposite of the chess table had dark brown hair, deep blue eyes, and a pale complexion on a pretty face From what Harry could tell, she was about four foot six inches.

Harry observed their chess game and saw that the boy truly did suck, but there was still a chance to win. Still standing outside the compartment, Harry made his presence known.

"Use your bishop to take her knight and put her king into check, when she uses her queen to take your bishop, take it with your rook and put her into checkmate." Harry said as he leaned against the door frame

"Yes! Bishop to E5! Take that Shannon!" The boy yelled happily

"Ugh! See what you've done?" She asked as she glared at Harry "Now he's never going to let it go that he beat me at chess." The girl now known as Shannon groaned in frustration.

"Oh yes!" The boy exclaimed "I mustn't forget the random stranger that helped me finally vanquish my arch rival." The boy got up and shook Harry's hand "The name's Maximus Boridius." The boy now know as Maximus said with a nervous smile

"Harry Potter." Harry said. Maximus' face became one of relief. Harry knew that the Boridius' were some of Voldemort's most avid followers. The head of the family was a step below inner-circle level.

"Well don't be a stranger! Come on in!" Maximus dragged Harry in "The girl with the scowl on her pretty face is Shannon Foursythe."

"Hello." Harry said

She grunted in response

"Awww, don't mind her. She just hates losing, especially to me." Maximus said with a smile

"Yeah well, you never win anything. So it's a big insult to lose to you." She was still scowling

"Well Maximus, if you were smart enough to win on your own then you would have. Technically I won." Harry said as he sat down

"Hey! Just whose side are you on? And don't call me Maximus, It's either Max or Maxie." (AN:/ When I write dialogue I will use 'Max' because 'Maximus is too long to write each time.)

"Well Maximus," Max scowled "I am on my own side." Harry said

"That's pretty narcissistic of you." Shannon said no longer scowling

"It was meant to be."

"Oh well whatever!" Max said back to his chipper self "Any Idea what house you'll be in?"

"Nope and I don't care either." Harry replied

"I'm going for anything but Slytherin. I want to break the habit of my family always going there." Max said

"I could either go Slytherin or Ravenclaw." Shannon said

"Hey how do we get sorted anyway?" Max asked "Do we take a test or do we have to run an obstacle course or something?"

"Well first off, eighty percent of the British Wizarding World isn't fit enough to run an obstacle course." Harry said "And how we get sorted is by putting on a magical, singing hat that reads our minds and yells out what house we're in." Harry said sarcastically

"Fine be that way and don't tell me." Max said as he pouted

Shannon was trying to contain her smirk as she obviously knew Harry was telling the truth.

"It wouldn't be much of a surprise if you knew what it was now would it. Now talking about all this crap is getting really boring."

* * *

><p>"N'more than four ter a boat." The giant man bellowed that Harry realized was Hagrid from Remus' stories.<p>

Harry and Max had just gotten of the train and were now on their way to the docks. Shannon had seen some of her childhood friends and had left Harry and Max alone.

"C'mon" Max said "That one only has one person in it."

They walked over and got in. The other boy in the boat turned around as they got in. He had dark blonde hair with gray eyes and looked to be around Harry's height.

"Hello." He said

"Hey/Sup." Harry and Max answered at the same time.

"Cedric Diggory." The boy said sticking out his hand

Harry and Max introduced themselves.

"Forward!" Hagrid bellowed and the boats lurched forward at an extremely slow pace.

The three sat in somewhat awkward silence, seeing as none of them knew what to talk about.

Lots of gasps and oooos were heard as they came upon the giant castle. Even Harry couldn't hold in a quick intake of breath. The castle really was a sight to behold, it was one thing to see pictures of it but it was in a different ballpark compared to the real thing.

Finally, after ten minutes of riding the small boats and stopping twice, as the giant squid had to lift people who fell in the water back into their boats. They were finally at the castle.

Hagrid led them up to the boat house and to the front of some giant oak doors where he knocked loudly three times. A stern looking witch opened the doors and Harry smirked. It was his 'Aunt Minie' who had visited him as a baby and had been in so many of the Marauder's stories. 'This was going to be fun' Harry thought.

"Thank you Hagrid." The stern professor said with a slight smile

" 'is no poblm' Professor McGonagall. Just doin' me job after all." Hagrid replied and walked off.

All the first years followed the Professor into another room with an almost as large a door as the outside door. 'What is up with this place and big doors?' Harry wondered as he leaned against the wall, watching most of the other first years freak out about the sorting. Some claiming you had to fight a dragon while one Harry found particularly funny was about doing a tango with a troll. Max kept on looking at Harry for any indication for what the sorting method was. Harry just nodded seriously at any idea Max put forward and saying that it changes every year.

McGonagall started to tell a very brief history of the founders when Harry decided to pull a small prank.

When McGonagall was done talking Harry spoke up, "So what if I glued Snivellus' shoes to the ceiling? He deserved it for never washing his hair." Harry quoted James Potter

Minerva froze in her tracks and turned around to see a James Potter replica and two boys that could almost pass for Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. 'Oh Merlin!' Minerva thought. 'I don't think I can live another era of Marauders.'

"Mr. Potter, I see that you have finally come to Hogwarts. I must ask that you do not say that name anywhere near our Potion's Master." Minerva scorned

"Why I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about." Harry said in Marauder Law (LAW# 62 deny, deny, deny until you annoy them enough and then confess.)

"Mr. Potter you know exactly what I am talking about." Her lips were dangerously threatening to turn into a smile. "And for your cheek I will be sending your guardian a letter after the sorting and when you have a house." She had to be stern with him or else she'd have another band of Marauders on her hands.

Harry just gave her an innocent smile. Harry looked over and saw two twin gingers staring at him in what seemed what awe and jealousy. Max was looking at him like he was Merlin himself, Cedric was shaking his head, and Shannon looked on disapprovingly.

The wide-eyed firsties walked into the hall with everyone watching them. When they all stopped talking, the hat on the three legged stool started singing:

Oh you may not think me pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

you'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!

Max turned around at Harry and glared. "I thought you were lying! You had me going on about fighting a dragon and dancing with a troll!"

"I told you how we got sorted on the train didn't I?" Harry replied smirking

Just as Max was about to reply, McGonagall called out,

"Boridius, Max!"

Max Gulped and went to the stool and put the hat on. He seemed to have a twenty second argument with the hat before it called out,

"Ravenclaw!" Max looked relieved and headed towards the table with the blue and bronze banner.

Harry zoned out for three minutes until it was Cedric's turn. The hat was on his head for three seconds before it called out,

"Hufflepuff!" He smiled and walked to the table with the black and yellow banner

Harry zoned out again wondering how long the sorting would take because frankly, he was starving. He regained focus when he saw Shannon get sorted into

"Slytherin!" She gave a small smirk and headed toward the table with the silver and emerald banner.

Zoning out again Harry wondered if they would have any sort of muggle soda. 'Probably not, the Wizarding World wouldn't stoop to muggle beverages.' Harry thought sarcastically. England really needed to get into the twenty-first century, America already was and so was Japan.

"Potter, Harry." McGonagall called

Harry walked calmly up to the stool, sat down and let McGonagall put the hat on him.

' Not another Potter! And raised by a Marauder no less? That's it I'm telling the old goat that I need my vacation this year.' A voice in Harry's head said

'Oh yeah my dad was the one who lit you on fire during his fourth year.' Harry answered back

'Yeah, and it took another hour to convince the other first years I was safe to put on.'

"I saw Moony's memory of that. I've never heard something scream that loud.'

'Maybe I should wipe all your memories right now just to spite your father.'

'He died, moron.'

'So? I'm still not above it, but screw it I'm not in the mood to deal with the old goat today. I guess I need to sort you?'

'Obviously.'

'Well let's get this over with shall we? Let's see here you are cunning and your goal of curing you're mother is an extremely ambitious one at that. Despite how amusing it would be to see you and Snivellus in the same house, you would most likely kill all the were-hater kids in the house.'

'Probably, so Slytherin is out.'

'You're brave, and you're extremely hard working but you don't give out your trust blindly. You value your knowledge more than anything. And have no preferences to housing. Well well well Mister Potter you are an interesting one.'

'Just place me in a house that will reach my goals faster.'

'Ahh, yes. Tis a sad day that a child of your age is more interested in learning than having fun and making friends.'

'The only reason I'm alive is because of my mother and I will not stop until she is cured!' Harry thought hardly

Yes, I see you feel quite strongly about this. And to accomplish your goals you would do best in' Ravenclaw! 'Now kid, do me a favor and leave my out of any of you plans for the future alright?'

'Whatever' Harry replied as he went over to the table of blue and bronze that was clapping politely for him, and sat down to Max.

Finally, the sorting was over ending with the twin gingers going to Gryffindor and after some weird words from the insane, old man running the school and finding out that they had a new staff member that will be the defence teacher. They could eat. 'Finally!' Harry thought as he reached for a thick, juicy steak.

As he was eating, Harry observed the teachers. The new DADA teacher was Karen Bromstien. Apparently she was a former Hit-Wizard but was released from service when she lost her right hand. Another teacher he saw, was the esteemed Potions Master and the Marauder's favorite chew toy. Hogwarts' own 'Snivellus' Severus Snape. He was staring intently at Harry with a scowl on his big-nosed face. Harry got the same feeling he got when Remus used Legitimacy on him, so Harry did as he was supposed to and cleared his mind. The scowl on Snivellus' face turned into an enraged glare. Harry just smiled cheerfully back at him and went back to eating.

As they were finishing up desert, Dumbledore got up and all the food vanished right when Max was about to take a bite out of a brownie, but got a mouth full of air instead.

"My brownie!" Max yelled in rage

"Shut up Maximus, you're making a fool out of yourself on the first day. Everyone is already looking at you." Harry admonished

"But it was a good brownie not too moist but not too dry. Just right." Max sighed dreamily

"You're an idiot."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Yes now as sorry as I am for the fate of Mr. Boridius' brownie, as I agree with you. They are very tasty, almost as good as that new muggle candy I just tried called Reese's Peanut Butter cups, truly delicious." Dumbledore rambled on only to stop when McGonagall cleared his throat. "Oh yes! As much as I would like to stay here and discuss candy, I'm afraid we must all go to bed. But first, let us exercise our voices. Everyone pick a tune, and off we go!"

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald,

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling,

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

Everyone finished on a different note and quite honestly, Harry thought it sounded rather awful. But Dumbledore was clapping and so were all the teachers, so he guessed that that was what it normally sounded like.

"Ah, music. A magic unlike any other in the world." Dumbledore said "But we can't stay here all night so I guess that it's time for bed. Well, off you go. Pip-pip!"

The first year Ravenclaws followed the prefect up to their common room. They found a wooden door with an eagle head knocker. The prefect knocked. And a voice answered,

"What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?"

"We have to answer a riddle to get into the common room. Unfortunately, that also means just about anyone can get in here as well, and no matter how many times we ask Professors' Flitwick and Dumbledore. We can't get it changed. So in order to keep people out of it, we don't tell anyone about it. Well go on you lot, answer the riddle." The prefect commanded.

They all thought about it for a minute until Harry answered,

"A River."

"Precisely." A voice answered back.

The female prefect beamed at him and let him inside. The room was tall and circular, had large, full bookcases, and a view that looked over the mountains. There were worktables over to one side of the circular room, and a few chairs and couches pulled around a hearth. There were two spiral staircases near the back wall.

"Now as you can see," The prefect started "The common room is mainly used for homework and fifth and seventh years have NEWT's and OWL's to worry about, so it would be a bad idea to interrupt them while they're studying. You don't have to whisper however, the worktables have silencing charms over them. Every year, a fourth year will tutor a first year and a sixth year will tutor a second year. We do this to help you adjust to the Hogwarts schedule and to make sure the Ravenclaw reputation of never having a student get below an 'Acceptable' on their exams stays that way. The dormitories are up the staircases, girls on left, boys on right. There are two people to a room since we have the second biggest dormitories behind the Slytherins who have the whole dungeon to themselves. Are there any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Good now off to bed."

Luckily, you got to choose your bunkmate and the house elves brought your stuff up after you chose. Harry was with Max and the rooms were pretty good. They were ten by ten meters with a large window that overlooked the Quidditch Pitch, two four poster beds, a bookshelf, two desks, and a five by two meter bathroom.

"Nice." Max commented

"I've seen better." Harry replied

"Must you critic everything we see?"

"It's part of who I am, you get used to it."

"Whatever, I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Night Harry." Max said as he yawned

"Night Maximus."

"Stop saying my full name would you? It's a dumb name."

Harry just shook his head and went to sleep wondering what tomorrow would bring.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:/ I know that it has been a long time since I last updated but I was swamped with school work and kind of forgot to update for a while. And after I forgot to update I just didn't feel like doing it any more until now. I just got a free period and plan on working on the story everyday, so hopefully it won't be so long between updates any more. I try to have 5000 to 4000 words in each chapter so it takes awhile to do each one. Once again I'm sorry for not updating. I went back and fixed a few of my mistakes in the last chapters as well as add or delete a few things that didn't go along with the story like how no one knows Lily was hit with the killing curse otherwise lily's name would be famous too. One more thing, I need a beta reader and if any of you would like to do so please send me a message. Anyway here's Chapter 3.**

It has been two and a half weeks since Harry had been sorted into Ravenclaw. He was currently sitting on his bed, reading about the animagus transformation. By his estimates, he should be able to finish the transformation by the end of the year. It really wasn't that hard actually, all it took was research, time, focus, and good control of his magic. The only thing that Harry was worried about was that he didn't have good enough control of his magic yet.

Finished with the chapter he was on, he contemplated his first couple of classes. Potions had gone as he had expected.

FLASHBACK

_"Come on Harry! We'll be late for Potions!" Max exclaimed_

_"I can't even see why you would want to go to Potions, it's going to suck." Harry replied_

_"What makes you think that? Snape's the youngest Potion's Master in history! He's a genius."_

_"Just wait and see."_

_Five minutes later they were standing outside one of the dungeon doors with the Hufflepuffs. Suddenly, the door banged open causing most of the first years to jump/yelp._

_"IN!" Snape commanded, everyone followed without question._

_Max was sitting at the front-middle of the room with Harry who was resting his head on his hand looking extremely bored. Cedric was sitting behind them next to Roger Davis (Another Ravenclaw in their year)._

_The sneering professor took roll call, scowling ore every time he called out a name. Especially when he got to,_

_"Potter." Snape growled_

_"M'kay." Harry mumbled as he twirled his wand._

_"Put your wand away Potter! Ten points from Ravenclaw!' Snape sneered_

_Harry just shrugged and muttered "Whatever"._

_"You are here to learn the art of Potion making." Snape started as he eyed Max who was writing down everything he said. "If you master the art of potion making, you have one of the magical world's most valuable assets on your side. You can force an answer out of someone, you can cure curses that don't have a counter curse, and you can kill without anyone ever knowing how you did it. There will be no foolish wand waving in this class, and if I see even one wand ever out in this class, you will serve detention. Do I make myself clear?" Everyone nodded._

_"Good, there are instructions on the board. I want to see the level of which you can brew so far." Snape said as he eyed Harry and the Hufflepuffs. The turned and strode over to his desk, making his robes billow behind him._

_Harry looked at the board, It was a simple boil cure that Harry had done two years ago. Harry and Max agreed to work on different aspects of the potion, Harry prepares the ingredients while Max brews. Even though Harry had been brewing potions since he was eight, it turned out that Max was the better brewer and seemed to know more about potions then Harry did._

_Half an hour later, they were the first ones done with a perfect potion. Max bottled it and handed it in. Snape looked the color and gave an experimental sniff, then turned to Harry._

_"Potter! Think you could take credit for Boridius' work did you? Ten points from Ravenclaw! You get an acceptable for the potion."_

_Max just stared dumbly at the professor and returned to his seat wondering why the hell he was marked down for a perfect potion. He then turned to Harry who was whistling happily and playing with a sickle._

_"You knew class would be like this? Why did he react like that?"_

_"My father, uncle, and two of their friends were the biggest pranksters to ever hit Hogwarts and Snape was their favorite target." Harry explained_

_"So he is trying to spite them by making your life hell?" Max said frowning._

_"Like an immature dick, yes."_

END OF FLASHBACK

Potions was going to get worse if what Remus said about Harry having the same personality as James (but without the need to prank everyone in sight) was true. And to make matters worse, Harry was an exact replica of his father, probably bringing up some bad memories for the esteemed Potions master. To sum it all up, Potions was going to suck for Harry.

Potions along with History were the worst classes so far, what with the dick of a Potions master and a ghost with the powers to bore you to death teaching it was no wonder.

However classes hadn't gone all bad, in-fact he was the best in every class but Potions, History, and Herbology. Transfiguration had been pretty easy and probably what he was best at.

FLASHBACK

_Harry and Max were walking to their first Transfiguration lesson that they had with the Slytherins._

_"I'm telling you Harry, there is no way Puddlemore could beat the Harpies. Sure they have good chasers, seeker, and world class beaters. But they have no keeper and the Harpies' chasers are too good." Max explained_

_"You know what, I don't even care anymore. Just be ready to pay up after Puddlemore wins." Harry said now frustrated with Max's constant talking. He honestly couldn't believe that he'd gotten into an argument about quidditch of all things. He barely even followed the game, just enough to keep a conversation going._

_"Deal. You'll be eating your words and I'll be two Galleons richer."_

_As they arrived in the Transfiguration classroom, they saw that they were the last of the Ravenclaws but still before all the Slytherins. They took two open seats near the back of the classroom, waiting for McGonagall to enter._

_Harry idly wondered how Remus was doing with setting up his shop. They had only sent two letters between the two of them using school owls and Remus had said that he had decided to make it into an inn like the Leaky Cauldron, that housed every different kind of creature like werewolves, vampires and the like, with no prejudices to bother them._

_They weren't the first people to try this however. These kind of places were usually shut down by the ministry because they were afraid that they would use these places to gather and cause an uprising. None of this had ever happened, it was just the ministry being stupid and against the magical creature community. Harry and Remus however had something that none of the other people that had tried to set up inns like this one had. They had the Potter name behind them._

_The Potter's, while not the richest family, were an ancient family that went back as far as the Roman empire and were also one of the original families that helped start the Ministry. Not to mention that there and been at least 4 Potters who had become Minister and they were all some of the most beloved Ministers they've had._

_Harry was broken out of his musings when he saw McGonagall enter the classroom._

_"Good morning, and welcome to your first Transfiguration lesson." McGonagall started "You are here to learn transfiguration, which for those of you who don't know is the process of turning the shape, property, texture, and material into something different. And the first thing we shall cover will be the rules you must follow in my class..."_

_She proceeded to explain her rules and expectations of the class, along with a small bit of theory behind their first lesson which was turning a matchstick into a needle. Harry groaned, he was doing this last year with Remus' wand and the only reason he hadn't started doing it sooner than then was because you shouldn't do magic before the age of ten or else there could be serious repercussions upon a persons undeveloped magic._

_Harry proceeded to do what his Dad's notes had said the easiest way he had found out to Transfigure just about anything, which was not to just say the incantation wave your wand and expect something to happen. You had to keep a clear picture in your mind of what is supposed to change about the object you are transfiguring. So when turning a match into a needle, he had to focus on the differences between the two, the hardness, shininess, smoothness, and other properties. While focusing on these he said the incantation, did the wand movements and watched as the match transformed into a needle. With nothing left to do, he sat and watched amusingly as the other students tried to change their matches. Shannon even went so far as to threaten her match under the threat of burning it to a crisp, although she did yield results after the threat._

_"Mr. Potter what are you doing?" McGonagall asked from behind him_

_"Nothing Professor." Harry answered with a bored expression on his face_

_She scowled "I see that Mr. Potter, should you not be changing your match?"_

_"No." Harry said still looking incredibly bored_

_"No? And exactly why not?" she asked still scowling_

_"Because you never told us to do anything after we've done it." he said as he pointed to his needle._

_She looked at the needle thoughtfully " , would you please make the change again." she said as she laid another match in front of him_

_Harry sighed and made the transfiguration a second time_

_"Well done Mr. Potter!" She smiled a little "Twenty points to Ravenclaw. I must say I have never had a student make the change so fast in my class, keep up the good work Mr. Potter."_

_Harry nodded his head in thanks before going back to watching the other students fail, he looked over at Max to see him looking at him strangely._

_"How did you do it so fast?" He asked_

_"Maximus, there are things about me you should know, and one of those thing is that I'm just cool like that."_

END OF FLASHBACK

Every one of their classes so far had been extremely boring. Since Harry was so far ahead and really could learn anything in class, he had taken to reading and studying ahead at night where he could get hours of uninterrupted silence and peace (Besides Maximus' constant snoring, which is why the first spell Harry made sure to learn was the silencing charm).

"Harry?"

Harry looked up to see Max standing in front of him. Despite being extremely annoying, the hyperactive boy had been growing on Harry and was amusing to watch as he made a fool of himself.

"What Maximus?"

He scowled at the use of his full name "Well you have been staring at the same spot for the last five minutes and I just wanted to tell you that we have our first flying lesson in fifteen minutes. We should probably start heading down." He said

Harry looked at his watch to see that Max was right. He shrunk his books down to Max's amazement and walked out the door with Max quickly following.

"So Harry, I was wondering what that whole thing that happened before the sorting when McGonagall gave you detention was about." He asked as he caught up

"That was McGonagall making sure that she lives through the next decade." Harry said as they rounded a corner.

"Huh?" Max asked confused

"You know how my dad was a big prankster right?"

He nodded

"They were all in Gryffindor and what teacher do you think had to deal with them the most?" Harry explained

"Ahhh that makes sense. So why aren't you being a big prankster then? The only thing that could be considered a prank you've done so far is that thing with McGonagall. All you do now is read and go to class."

"I don't actually particularly enjoy doing pranks" Harry said "it's just how I was raised. I just did that to McGonagall to make her sweat a little."

"What was your detention anyway?"

"I had to write a letter to my uncle and explain what I did, He actually congratulated me for beating my dad's Detention record. I think she was just making an example out of me in front of the other first years to be honest."

"Yeah."

They fell into a somewhat awkward silence as neither of them could think of anything to talk about. Harry decided to ask the thing that was on his mind since the train here.

"So what's your relationship with Shannon?"

"Wha-what do you mean? We're just friends." He said hastily and somewhat nervously

"Not a dating relationship." Harry said exasperated "I mean how do you know her, and you two seem a lot closer than friends."

"Well, I've lived with her and her family for the past six years so we probably know each other better than most."

Harry's face turned to a thoughtful expression "I know that this might be a personal question so you can decline to answer, but what about your family? What happened to them?"

Max's face darkened and he was tightening his fists. "Let's just say that my family and I don't get along and leave it at that. If I get to know you better I'll tell you."

Harry nodded his head in acceptance, he would do the same thing if someone asked about his mother.

They once again fell into a (slightly more comfortable) silence as they walked through the castle. Harry forced his mind off such depressing topics and focused of the upcoming flying lesson. Harry had been flying many times before at Potter manor and he loved it. It was one of the places where he honestly felt free, like nothing in the world could stop him.

He had never gotten the chance to play quidditch though, Remus had never really taken Harry into the magical world much. They had opted to stay in the muggle world more where prejudices wouldn't bother them.

They had finally arrived at the quidditch pitch and saw a long line of used, beat up brooms and a few groups of first years milling about, waiting for class to start. Madam Hooch was waiting for them, dressed in her full quidditch gear and looking at them with creepy, yellow hawk like eyes.

Five minutes later and they were all there, each standing next to a broom. Hooch eyed all of them before giving out instructions. "Alright all of you, I want you to stick your best arm over the broom and say UP!" Her broom shot into her hand

Harry did so and his broom shot right into his hand along with Cedric, Roger Davis, and those two twin gingers from Gryffindor. Max was having a bit of trouble but got it eventually, even though it had hit him in the face first. Shannon was having no luck as well until she threatened the broom at wand point like she did the match in Transfiguration, and got results when her broom quivered on the ground before shooting into her hand.

"Okay," Hooch began "when I blow my whistle, I want you to kick off the ground - hard - and just hover a few feet off the ground before landing immediately," she instructed "Okay, one - two - three!" she blew her whistle and everyone rose of the ground a few feet, some more steady than others. Harry just hovered there in mid air for a few moments, enjoying the feel of floating on the piece of wood before looking around to see several students (Maximus who appeared to have fallen) standing on the floor and standing as far away as possible from their brooms, probably scared from their first flying experience. He gently lowered himself back down, seeing others do the same.

Hooch began further instruction on turning, rising, stopping, and a few other instructions before she let them all fly on their own. Most chose to stay on the ground but Harry, Roger, Cedric, and the Ginger-Twins all began a game of tag, Harry had the best control followed by Cedric, Madam Hooch gave them all a firm nod when the lesson was over and advised them all to try out for the quidditch teams next year.

Harry decided he was going to do just that. 

* * *

><p>Two days later, Harry decided to get up early for breakfast. It was Saturday and there were only a few people down in the great hall but luckily, one of them was Shannon. She seemed to be wide awake despite the earliness of the hour.<p>

"Good morning Shannon." Harry said tiredly as he sat down next to her

"Morning Potter" she said "Any particular reason you've decided to grace me with your presence this morning?"

"Well I haven't talked to you much since the train ride here, but if what you're asking is why I am not at my own table. That is because I don't know nor do I want to know anyone else currently sitting in the Hall at the moment."

"I'm flattered that you chose me to sit by," She said "but isn't it against the rules to sit at another house's table?"

"No." Harry said as he stole some of her bacon

"No? And that's my food you're stealing!"

Harry ignored her last comment and took her toast as well "There's nothing in the Hogwarts Charter that says I can't sit at another table. The only reason people don't is because of the stupid house rivalries."

"Wait, you read the entire Hogwarts Charter?" She asked surprised "My family has one, it's like four-thousand pages long! Why in the world would you read that?"

"Five-thousand, actually. And if I know the rules and the do's and don'ts of Hogwarts, I could get away with pretty much anything." Harry explained as he drank some of her orange juice

"So you read that entire thing just so you know when you can get into trouble without consequences? And stop stealing my breakfast! There's food all around you that is not mine." She replied heatedly.

"Not only so I don't get in trouble, but so that I can exploit the rules to my advantage. But let's get off such boring topics shall we? How's the Slytherin Common-Room?"

She sighed "It's what you could expect from a dungeon, it's cold, bleak, creepy, and dark. The only good thing is that we only have to share our dorms with one other person. How about you? How's the Raven Common-Room?"

"It's what you'd expect from a house that are known for their knowledge." Harry said "Bookshelves everywhere, silenced study tables, map's on how to get to the library as fast as possible, basically a studious person's wet dream."

"What's a wet dream?" Shannon asked with confusion

Harry nearly laughed at how some of the older boys sitting at the table nearly choked on their food when they heard her question "Don't worry about it, you'll understand when you're older." Harry said in a patronizing way as if talking down to a five year old

She glared at him, Harry was unaffected but amused by this. "You really want to know?" She nodded "Go ask one of the older students listening in on our conversation."

She gave him one last un-effective glare before walking over to a boy sitting ten spots down the bench and tapped him on the shoulder. The boy turned around and Shannon appeared to ask a question. His face was one of slight confusion which quickly changed to mirth. He motioned her to come close before whispering in her ear. Shannon's face went beet red before she stomped on the boy's foot and marched back over to Harry.

"I take it that you've satisfied your curiosity Ms. Foursythe?" harry asked humorously

She flushed deep red before answering "I would appreciate it if you didn't use that kind of language in my presence if you'd please. I might respond more violently next time you say something like that."

Harry just shook his head and asked "Hey another question, why do you seem so keen on threatening in-animate objects?"

She flushed again "It's how I used to control Max when he was really bugging me when we were little. If he doesn't annoy me much, I won't get violent."

"He is a right pain in the ass." Harry said ignoring her glare "Whatever way helps you control him the most I guess. Out of curiosity, why does he stay with your family anyway? He won't tell me why just something to do with his family."

She looked surprised "I'm surprised he told you that much at all. It's really actually a personal matter and it isn't my place to say."

Max just walked in the door and looked for Harry before spotting him sitting with Shannon and started walking over to them.

Harry saw Max walk in and got up to eat at his house table "It was nice talking with you Shannon." She nodded at him and went back to eating

"Hey Harry, what were you doing with Shannon?" Max said as they met near the Hufflepuff table before starting to walk to their house table

"Talking." Harry said

"Talking about what?" Max pressed

"Wet dreams." Harry said hoping that Max would know what it meant so he could see his room mate do something amusing. Harry was getting quite fond of those moments, the boy was starting to grow on him with his usual energetic attitude even though it was very endearing.

"Huh?" Max looked confused

Harry sighed he was really getting tired of people not knowing what he was talking about. A thought came to mind that could provide Harry with some entertainment. "If you want to know what it means, you should ask Shannon."

"Well, whatever. I'll do that later." He said as they sat down at the Ravenclaw table where Max began eating heartily while Harry ate an apple.

They talked about The upcoming house quidditch matches and Harry's life in the muggle world. Max was amazed at the technology that Harry described and was interested in the magical community in the Americas. Harry told him how they didn't wear robes and opted for the more comfortable muggle clothing. Harry was in the middle of explaining what a television was when a black owl swooped in and landed next to Harry. Opening the letter tied to the owl, Harry read:

_Dear Harry,_

_Hey cub it's Remus. I was just writing to check up on you and to deliver some good and bad news. The good news is renovation of the inn has been going well, Mipsy and Alfred have been tearing out floorboards for the last two days. I even came up with a name for it, 'Marauders'. I figured it was a decent name, better than 'The Leaky Cauldron' anyway. The bad new on the other hand started when I went to the ministry to deal with the wards being put over the inn. The Ministry, or at least one of the higher ranked workers, has been halting my every attempt at getting a bartending permit and getting wards put over the place. Some woman named Delores Umbridge has been at the head of it. She's the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister and is the one who has been passing all those anti-werewolf laws. I filed a complaint and there's going to be a hearing to take place over the Christmas Holidays on December twenty eighth, if you can think of anything that will help our case let me know. Anyway, I'll get off such depressing topics and say good-bye._

_P.S. I bought the owl so we don't have to use the school ones anymore, name it what you want. It's a boy owl so don't name it Katey or anything._

_See you when the Holidays hit,_

_Remus_

'Well this could be a problem.' Harry thought when he finished reading the letter. 'The stupid bigoted people at the ministry are at it again.'

"What's wrong?" Max asked, seeing Harry's thoughtful face

"Nothing, my uncle is just having trouble with the ministry." Harry said as he walked back up to his dorm to write a letter back to Remus. He held his arm out for the owl to land on, it gave him a golden eyed stare before jumping on to the offered appendage. "I'll call you Blacky." It hooted in response "I know not very creative but I don't care."

When he got there he sat down in his desk chair, pulled out some parchment and a quill, and began writing his response.

_Dear Remus_

_I would say that I was surprised that the Ministry is trying to steamroll us once again, but I unfortunately saw this coming. The bigotry at the Ministry has reached an all time high and I doubt it will change soon. I'll do some research here at Hogwarts and see if I can find anything that will help our case. Try and find a good lawyer, see if we have any records of cases won in the Potter Family archives. I'll see you at the Holidays as well, keep in touch._

_P.S. I named the bird Blacky, I know very creative._

_Harry_

Harry tied the letter to Blacky and watched as the owl took off. He idly wondered if they could pull this off, Remus had only gotten custody of Harry but not through the Ministry. This was going to be a tight squeeze but he thought they could pull it off.

****


	4. Chapter 4

**AN/:This is the next chapter in my story and I hope you like it. Once again I am open to any criticism and am in need of a beta reader.**

**Tareth if you really want to beta my story I'll need an email address to send my progress to. I would be very thankful for the help if you could lend any.**

For the next few weeks, you could see Harry almost constantly in the library. He was currently researching all past werewolf related cases for the last twenty years. Going through old newspaper clippings and old Ministry case files was dry but necessary work. So far his research had proven fruitful, for he had found multiple cases of werewolves or half-breeds owning and warding property without complaint. If they could show that the Ministry was incompetent and were hypocrites, they would indirectly be putting the blame on Fudge. And Fudge would probably do anything to save his public image.

Harry and Remus had sent a few letters back and forth, writing about what they had both been researching. Remus had been trying to find lawyer as well as search for the problems that the anti-werewolf laws had caused. He has had luck in finding the problems the laws had caused but still no luck in finding a lawyer. No one wanted to get in a case involving a werewolf at the moment, with all the new laws being put into place for fear of being arrested for being in correspondence with one.

The only time Harry wasn't in the library was when he was either in their dorm-room practicing spells or doing homework. He was still top of the class in everything but Potions, Herbology, and History without effort, but he was really starting to get bored now. Reading at night and practicing on his own was good and all but not having instruction on the subject he was on really sucked. With no one to tell him if he was doing the wand movement right or saying the incantation correctly made learning on his own hard, but he'd just have to make due.

Speaking of studying on his own, Max had taken to staying up late with Harry to study Potions. Harry was second best in that class, second only to Max who seemed to have some sort of deep love for potions. Harry still didn't know the reason behind his Potions love but didn't really care if he found out either way.

Harry had only been hanging out with Max. He had talked with Shannon, Cedric, and some others in their year, but had never really spent any time with them. Max seemed to have the same drive for Potions as Harry had for magic in general, they sort of understood each other somewhat. Only Max's obsession with potions was less profound than Harry's with magic and Max still found the need and time to talk with others (completely unnecessary in Harry's book). It still didn't mean Harry didn't think Max was annoying as hell though.

'Am I anti-social?' Harry asked himself 'Probably.'

Harry was currently walking back to the common room after a long evening of looking through past werewolf cases, planning on retiring to bed for a nice long sleep. After he answered the riddle and walked in, he saw Max reading a book near the fireplace. He seemed completely lost in his own little world when an idea struck Harry.

"Hey Maximus?" Harry said

He looked up scowling at the use of his full name "Harry what are you doing back from the library so early?"

"Uhh, that was four hours ago. How long have you been reading that you lost track of time?"

He looked outside the window to see that it was indeed dark out. "I started right after you left, I guess I overdid the reading a bit." He said slightly blushing while grinning

"Never mind your reading habits, I have a question to ask." Harry said "I know that the Foursythe's are a pureblood family. But do you know if they have lawyers?"

He put on a thinking face before answering. "I don't usually concern myself with things like politics and whatever else proper purebloods do." He scowled when he said proper pureblood "But I know that the Foursythe's have a lawyer named Tonks or something or other like that."

Harry looked at him surprised "Tonks, are you sure that that is the name?"

He shrugged "Yeah pretty sure, I think that they have a daughter here at school. Why do you need a lawyer anyway? Is it about what you said at breakfast a few weeks ago about your uncle and the Ministry?"

Harry nodded distractedly before heading up the stair to their room, still thinking about the Tonks'. He remembered visiting them when he was little, before Voldemort was defeated. It was a very vague memory, just a name his mother had mentioned is all he remembered but it was enough. But knowing that they knew the Potters might be enough to get them to help them on their case despite the new laws.

The next day, Harry sent Remus a letter about how the Tonks' might be willing to help their case. He also went and asked around school to see if he could find the daughter that Max had mentioned. Strangely enough, most of the upper years knew who she was but wouldn't give him a first name. When he asked about that they mumbled something about not getting hexed and 'She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. Harry didn't ask more on the subject, he just asked where she could be found and they pointed him to some abandoned classrooms.

As he neared the area where they had pointed out to him, he heard a banging/thumping noise coming from down the hall. Assuming that this is where the girl would be he walked over to the door to find it locked and the usual 'Alohamora' didn't do the job so he tried a different unlocking charm he had read in one of his books. 'Aperedro' he said giving his wand a counter clockwise spin with a jab at the end. The door clicked open and he grinned at his success in getting the spell right on his first try.

When he opened the door he saw a girl with purple hair and was wearing muggle clothing. She was casting stunning spells at different targets positioned around the room. She was hitting the targets each time but appeared winded from too much casting. When she finally finished he made his presence known.

"Wouldn't it be more realistic if the targets were moving and not standing still?" Harry asked rhetorically and watched amused when the girl spun around to point her wand at him but tripped over her own feet.

"OW!" She squeaked "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" She questioned as she got back to her feet

"Harry Potter, and I was looking for you actually."

She raised an eyebrow at him and asked "Looking for me? And what would a little firsty need from me?"

"Information." Harry said "One of your parents are lawyers correct?"

She nodded her head yes, not really knowing where this is going.

"Well my uncle and I are in need of a lawyer and have had no luck so far."

"Wait there are hundreds of wizarding lawyers in England. Why choose my parents and why come to me directly instead of writing a letter to them? And why is a first year looking into all of this stuff? The name's Tonks by the way." She got all of her questions out in a mouth full

"This is a more delicate matter than a normal wizard case and because of that, not many would be willing to take the case. I came to you directly because I thought I could explain the situation better in person then through a letter and so that I could ask you if your parents would help and would be willing to do the case in the first place."

"Okay I get the fact that you wanted to know if I think my parents would do your case. You wanted a second opinion before you wasted your time to set up a meeting first only to learn that they wouldn't do it anyway." Harry nodded "But you dodged around two of my questions, why choose us and why is a first year looking into all of this?"

Harry was slightly impressed, she was more perceptive than he had thought. "I wanted to talk to you because my friend said that your parents are their family's lawyer and because I think we've met before. The reason I'm looking into this, well there is none. But you could say that I've always been a bit more mature than kids my age and the fact that the case affects me just as much as it does my uncle."

"We've met before? When?" She questioned

Harry was getting tired of all the questions but decided that it was in his best interest to answer them. "I think I was three at the time but I don't remember much, all I remember is my mother saying that we would be going to the Tonks' house."

"You can remember stuff that far back? Wait, you said that your name was Potter before right?" Harry nodded, she put on a thinking face before smiling brightly "Oh yeah! I remember that, You were so little at the time and you were so cute!" She gushed

Harry frowned at the use of the words 'little' and 'cute' but let it slide.

She continued talking. "Okay back on to the subject now, why is this case a delicate matter?"

"My uncle's a werewolf." Harry said and waited for a reaction, surprisingly none came.

"That's it? Your uncle's a werewolf, so what? Why does that make it a delicate matter?"

Harry was really starting to get irritated with all the questions. "You don't pay much attention to politics do you? Regardless, the reason it's a delicate matter is because in the last four months the ministry has passed twelve laws that restrict werewolf rights. Basically no one wants to get involved in any werewolf business right now."

She looked at him with an apologetic expression before answering "I see now, and I'm pretty sure my parents would be happy to help out your uncle. We're not those pureblood bigots." She growled "Hey, what's your uncle's name anyway?"

"Remus Lupin."

She blinked in surprise "I didn't know the Lupin's were related to the Potters."

"They're not, he's my legal guardian though and it's just easier to refer to him as an uncle to avoid questions."

She nodded her head in understanding "I'll send my parents a letter and tell them about it tonight."

Harry said thanks before they descended into a somewhat awkward silence. He idly noticed the robes and backpack in the corner, proudly displaying the Hufflepuff insignia. 'She must have changed when she got here' He thought. Before going over to inspect the pack.

"You said that your name was Tonks? Just Tonks, what's your first name." He said with his back turned

Her face turned red before she answered "I don't like my first name, and people who call me by my first name get hexed."

"Ahh I get it now." Harry said before chuckling

Tanks looked confused "What do you get?"

"When I was looking for you I asked for your first name." Harry said "They wouldn't give me one and just mumbled something about 'She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' now I understand why."

She flushed even deeper and mumbled 'At least people get the message'. Harry laughed at that.

"Hey what was that you said when you walked in?" She asked when her face turned back to normal

"Oh, I was just commenting on how using moving targets would be better for practice. Are you looking to be an auror?"

She nodded her head yes "Yeah I am trying to be an auror, but I want to get one of the really good experienced instructors that have been in the corps for a while. And I can't get moving targets because I suck at charms. You know anyone good with animation?"

Harry grinned before adopting a look of concentration as he pulled out his wand. Tonks looked amused when the first year took out his wand, thinking that he was going to do something stupid made up spell he'd heard from some upper years. But imagine her surprise when he gave few expert flicks with his wand while murmuring under his breath and four of the targets started to morph into life sized, wooden dummies. With a few more flicks of the wand and whispered incantations he went around and tapped each dummy on the head which made them jump up and start moving around.

Tonks was in awe at the magic that the first year was using, she doubted that she could even do what he was doing. He started a whole new set of wand movements and incantations and the dummies had black holes on their faces.

Harry turned around to see Tonks in open mouth shock at what he was doing. He took a couple deep breaths trying to regain control of his breathing. Using that much magic at one time was tiring for an eleven year old, it was the most magic that Harry had used at one time and it took a lot out of him. But he'd done it and he was proud of it, the dummies were under the same animation charm he had used of Remus' coat.

The charm basically allowed you to have complete control of whatever you animated. The only problem was that it took a lot of mental direction and could be disrupted easily by an outside spell (Remus' coat for instance) which is why it wasn't used for anything but teaching someone control. In the months since he had gotten his wand, he had practiced mainly transfiguration and animation charms, the most things he had controlled at once was five toy cars he made race around his room. But those were small cars with only one command on them, these were four large dummies that he animated to move like a real person. It would be a test of his skill.

"Uhh Harry how and what did you do?" Tonks asked

"I animated them to move like real people that I control, as to how I did it, magic. Oh and there is one more surprise." Harry grinned mischievously as he flicked his wand at dummy causing it to shoot a pink ball out of the dark hole on it's head at Tonks, which hit her in the forehead

Tonks was surprised when she felt something hit her forehead, she reached up to touch the spot it hit to find wetness. 'Uh oh.' She thought thinking that it was blood, but when she looked at her hand she saw pink paint.

She looked at Harry questionably, he just grinned and flicked his wand to the other three dummies which started moving towards her. Harry adopted a look of concentration before saying, "You'd better start dodging Tonks, I don't know how long I can keep this up."

Tonks didn't have time to respond as the dummies all launched paint balls at her. She was constantly dodging and got hit plenty of times, but finally started to fight back which caused them to halt for five seconds before starting again. She spied Harry out of the corner of her eye to see him with the same look of concentration he had on his face when he started as well as making a constant figure eight movement with his wand. Two minutes later, Harry stopped. Not that Tonks was complaining as she was laying on the floor gasping for breath, Harry was doing the same only he wasn't covered in paint.

Once she regained her breath she said "That was amazing! It was the best workout I've ever done."

"Yeah same here, I've never operated that much at once before." Harry said still trying to catch his breath

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'll be good in a few minutes."

"Could you do that again? Not today of course, but three to two times a week?" She asked nervously

"What's in it for me?" Harry said not huffing as bad anymore

"I could teach you some spells that you won't learn for years." She decide to play to his Ravenclaw side

Harry thought about it for a second before agreeing. "Deal. I probably would have done it anyway, that was the best animation workout I've ever had."

"How long have you been doing stuff like that? We don't even do anything remotely close to that and we're in NEWT's."

"Well I started around two months ago, but I've been reading theory for years and have been stealing my uncles wand when ever I can." Harry said, to tired to make a remark about the teaching at Hogwarts "Well, I'm going to go take a four hour nap if you don't mind."

She nodded in agreement "I think I might as well, until next time Harry. Shall we say Thursday at five."

Harry nodded before walking to the door with one last comment "See you then, Nymphadora."

She stared at him in surprise for a second before launching a hex at where he was a second ago, before he disappeared through the door.

"How did that brat know my name!"

* * *

><p>"Hey Harry!"<p>

Harry looked up from the book he was reading on his bed to see Max walking in the door.

"What do you want? I'm kinda busy right now." Harry said irritably.

Indeed he was busy, He had finally finished reading all the past werewolf trials and was now trying to get back onto his schedule that he had before he started looking at trials. He was behind on his personal reading and studies by a fair bit and was currently trying to catch up on it. Early October, he had decided that the school was moving much too slow for him and was going to go at his own pace. He still paid attention in class and did his homework and everything, but he was less attentive than he normally would be.

"I was just going to tell you that you're going to miss the first quidditch match of the season if you stay up here much longer. Now let's go, let's go! I'm not going to wait for you much longer." Max said not noticing Harry's irritable tone in the slightest

Quidditch peaked Harry's interest, "Alright, give me a sec to change into some warmer clothes."

Harry changed and the two of them were heading down to the pitch. The game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin and was sure to be a fierce match.

"So who do you want to win?" Max asked

"I could care less honestly, but personally my bet's on Slytherin."

"Really? Everyone's been saying Gryffindor's a sure in to win. With having Weasley at seeker, apparently he's the best seeker we've had at Hogwarts in decades ." Max commented

"Yes, Weasley is a good seeker." Harry said "But they don't have anyone else on their team that's particularly good, according to Ellwood anyway. But Slytherin's got Moran at chaser, who's probably going to play professional later on along with two more decent chasers. They'll dominate the pitch especially with a rookie keeper like Wood in goal."

Max blinked in surprised "I didn't know you paid attention to school quidditch. Professional sure, but you've said nothing about school. And all I've seen you do is read."

Harry shrugged "It seems that it's what everyone has been talking about recently, and I do plan on trying out next year. I may not look like it but I do pay attention to what other people are saying, despite how annoying I find them." Harry looked pointedly at Max when he said this

Max didn't notice Harry's look "Well whatever, now hurry up I wanna get good seats!" Max sprinted the rest of the way there which looked to be about three hundred yards.

"I swear that kid must have ADHD or something." Harry mused aloud "He's pretty good in potions, maybe he has a personal supply of pepper up potion or something."

Harry calmly walked the rest of the way to the stands where he saw Max, Cedric, and Shannon sitting next to each other in between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw stands. Harry went to go join them.

"Evening Shannon, Cedric." Harry said smoothly

"Harry." Cedric nodded

"Potter." Shannon said

"Potter?" Harry frowned "I thought we were on better terms than that Foursythe? Are you still mad about the wet dream thing?"

She flushed a deep red. "Shut up Potter!"

"Hey you never did tell me what that meant." Max said

Harry smirked in Shannon's direction "Ask Shannon like I told you before."

"Oh right, Hey Shannon. What's a-"

"That's it!" She stood up, face redder than before. "I'm going to go sit with my house."

Max pulled her back down into her seat "But, Shan. You don't even like them." He whined

"That may be true, but they are my housemates and I'll be staying with them for the next seven years so I might as well know them."

"Just stay with us for the game, You can hang out with your house anytime." Max said

Shannon looked resolute but nodded her head and looked towards the player tents where Gryffindor had just flown out of.

"-and here comes Gryffindor! Jakobson, Kenton, Mueler, Elsly, Trueman, Wood, and Weasley!" The announcer that they weren't paying attention to announced. "Now here's the Slytherin Team! Moran, Jacobson, Kelsh, Housman, Flint, Pucey, Wesly, and Higgs!"

The green and scarlet captains Moran and Weasley shook hands before mounting to join their teams in the air. Madame Hooch released the Snitch and bludgers before throwing the quaffle into the air which was,

"Quickly taken by Moran, she passes to Pucey, back to Moran, to Kel- No! Stolen by Trueman! Who passes to Kenton, to Jakobs- No! Stolen by Moran who's now on a breakaway. Moran shoots, she scores! Ten nothing Slytherin!"

The game proceeded to go on until Slytherin was seventy points ahead when,

"Weasley just went into a steep dive above the Slytherin goal posts! I think he's seen the snitch!" The announcer yelled excitedly

Max looked at Harry expectantly "I told you Weasley would win the game for Gryffindor."

Harry gave him a pitying look "I'm never wrong Maximus, look what Moran's doing right now." Harry said as he pointed toward the Slytherin side

Max looked to see what Harry said was true, Moran was directing the other chasers to areas along the side of Weasley while she herself was diving after Weasley.

"They're going to corpse block him!" Cedric said excitedly

He was right the three chasers now surrounded Weasley causing him to stop his chase for the snitch. The red and gold side booed while the green and silver cheered.

Harry gave Max a 'I told you so' look before turning his attention back to the game. Gryffindor had scored twice when the Slytherin chasers stopped Weasley causing the score to be eighty to thirty. But it seemed that Moran was going to rectify the fifty point lead when she scored twice in the same minute.

"I don't get why everyone puts so much stock into their seekers." Harry commented offhandedly

"Well they're fun to watch, score the most points, end the game, and usually win the game." MAx said

"Yes, but they can only score one hundred fifty points." Harry said "That's a lot of points but it kind of gives the chasers a goal to reach, if they can score fifteen more points before the snitch is caught then the seekers don't matter. Fifteen points isn't that much when you think about it and the snitch is random, which makes the seekers game random, seeking takes luck. The chasers will always be as good as they play, chasing takes skill."

Max looked at Harry "Thought about that much have you?"

"A bit yeah, I want to try out next year so I want to know what position I should play."

"And you're thinking chaser," Shannon said "you seem more like a seeker if you ask me. You always want to do things by yourself, it seems to fit you more."

"Seeker's a stupid position and is too boring, all you do is fly around looking for a tiny gold ball. Like a really stupid version of I-Spy." Harry said

"Hey I wanna play seeker!" Cedric protested "It isn't a stupid position."

"Yeah it is, now shut up, stop whining, and watch the game." Cedric was about to respond but Max beat him to it

"What's I-Spy?"

Harry sighed and shook his head "Never mind muggle reference."

"You know, for the heir of a pureblood family you seem to spend a lot of time in the muggle world. what gives?" Shannon asked curiously

"No prejudice in the muggle world."

They all looked at him confused "What do you mean prejudice? Prejudice against what?" Cedric asked

Harry wondered how they would all react if he told them 'Well, they'll find out eventually when the inn opens up. Might as well tell them now' He thought

"Werewolves." Harry said

Max looked at Harry thoughtfully, Cedric's eye's widened a little but remained silent, Shannon gave a slight gasp before asking. "Wait, are you saying that you're a-" Harry cut her off

"No I'm not, but my uncle is. And werewolf prejudice has been pretty high these past couple of years, especially now with all the new laws coming out." They all nodded their heads in understanding before turning back to the game.

The score was now one-hundred seventy to forty with Moran putting up a relentless assault on Wood, who looked to be slowing down with all the shots on goal.

"Unless Weasley catches the snitch soon, it is going to be a Slytherin victory." Cedric said

"Yeah might as well just leave right now." Max was kidding when he said this but Harry got up and left without another word.

They all stared at him as he briskly walked down from the stands "Harry, I was kidding about leaving !" Max shouted after him

Harry just pulled the shrunken book out of his pocket and started reading and walking, never tripping over anyone's feet or slowing his fast pace at all.

"How does he do that?" Cedric mused aloud when Harry dodged a foam finger that was thrown at him as he passed the Slytherin stands.

"I don't know, it's like he has a sixth sense or something."

"Maybe he does, but I doubt we'll ever find out."

They all shrugged and went back to watching the rest of the game. Slytherin now had a one-hundred and seventy point lead and was still going strong. When the score hit two-hundred, they decided to follow Harry's example and head in.

* * *

><p>"Hello Nymphadora." Harry said as he walked in the room where he first met the energetic sixth year. He lazily dodged the hex that was sent his way before taking a seat on one of the abandoned desks.<p>

"Shut up you little brat! How did you learn my name anyway?" She asked angrily

Harry just gave her a sly smile "The tag on the inside of your robes told me."

She cussed "Damit Mum!" She proceeded to swear and cuss words that no one (other than Harry) under the age of second year would understand.

Harry watched on amused while adding new insults to his arsenal, before asking what had been on his mind lately "Speaking of your parents, have you gotten a response yet?"

"Yeah I just got it yesterday, they'd said that they would do it and have sent a letter back to your uncle." She said perking up and going back to her happy self

"Good, now I can finally stop looking for a lawyer." Harry said noticing some stress drop off his shoulders

"Yep! Now did you get the spells I taught you last time?"

"All of them but the contegno shield, can you show me that again?" Harry asked, taking out his wand

Tonks took her wand out as well and gave a counter-clockwise oval motion, while saying 'contego', and lo 'n' behold a green-yellowish shield appeared in front of her.

The contego shield was mainly for blocking spells that are designed to cause harm, but unlike the protego shield, it doesn't block physical objects. Protego relies on how much power the user put into his shield, while contegno still requires power from the caster, it requires a fraction of the power to do just as much.

Harry did the wand motions and muttered the incantation a few times before finally getting it.

"Well Harrikens, do you think you're ready to try out that shield?" Tonks said as she levitated the furniture to the side of the room.

Harry scowled at the use of 'Harrikens' but let it slide, he pulled out his wand, casted contegno, and made a two fingered 'Come get me' gesture at Tonks.

Tonks started by casting charm related curses at Harry so as to negate the contegno shield. It's a priority shield which means that it works really well for some types of spells and curses, but then it sucks when it comes to other types.

Harry quickly realized this as his shield began to crack and switched to protego. Tonks kept up her relentless assault on Harry's shield and backed up Harry into a corner. Harry knew that he was losing fast but saw an opening, she was starting to advance closer to him making it impossible for him to dodge and rely on his shield the whole time. But this tactic also made it so that it's hard for her to dodge as well, Harry dropped his shield for a split second and cast a trip jinx at her.

Tonks thought she had won when his shield dropped but was surprised to see it come right back up again, she also didn't notice the trip jinx that had hit her in the leg when Harry's shield dropped. So when she took a step forward, she fell flat on her face.

Harry realized that his opponent was indisposed and cast a quick spell at her to turn her blue. He let her get back up and both moved to the center of the room again to try again.

"That hurt when I fell," Tonks said as she canceled her blue skin "I think I might have bruised my nose."

"Go to the hospital wing afterward then, let's try this again for now."

They both faced each other like the last time, accept this time Harry was the one who started casting. He knew that it wasn't good to be on the defensive like he was the last time and decided to go for a defensive tactic this time.

But Tonks, unlike Harry, went for dodging the spell instead of shielding. Harry kept up his assault and dodged the curses that Tonks sent his way. But then it all went downhill for Harry when she started silent casting. Harry went back to relying on his shield again but was quickly becoming tired as she alternated between casting curses and charms.

His shield was starting to crack fast and decided to abandon it, he put a strong pulse of energy into his protego before diving behind the empty teacher's desk. But as soon as he was behind his cover, it was summoned away and he was bound by ropes the next moment.

"Good try Harrikens."

"Shut up and get me out of these ropes Nymphadora!" He struggled to sit up and face her

"I should just leave you there for saying my name brat, but I'll let you off this once seeing as you just got your butt handed to you." She canceled the ropes

"Well you're a sixth year and I'm a firstie, I beat you the first time so how does that feel?" Harry taunted

"You're too good to be a little firstie, you must have had dueling lessons or something." She said trying to save some of her pride

"Nope, unless you consider prank wars lessons. Now I'm going to go sleep for the next nineteen hours if you don't mind." He moved towards the door to leave

"It's only like" She checked her watch "six o'clock. Why are you going to bed so early?"

"I've been awake for the past thirty-eight hours and really need some sleep." Harry said yawning

"Wait you went through classes and dueling with me with no sleep, why in the world would you do that and how are you still awake?"

"I go caught up in a book last night and didn't realize the time until it was too late." Harry said tiredly "And in-order to stay up I chugged four pepper-up potions, the sleepiness kinda just hit me now."

Tonks noticed that his eyes were now visibly drooping "Well go to bed, you look dead on your feet at the moment."

Harry just nodded his head and dragged his feet back up to the Ravenclaw common room. Truthfully, he wasn't up all night reading a book. He was practicing the first steps of turning into an animagus, as of last night he had transformed his hand. Harry was very proud of his progress so far, the marauders had gotten to this stage in their fifth year and had not managed the complete transformation until their summer that same year.

It was probably one of the most painful things he had ever gone through, imagine your knuckles rearranging themselves and then having your skin stretched and reformed and you'll get pretty close to what it feels like. 'Hopefully this is as bad as it gets.' Harry thought as he laid down on his bed and rubbed his aching hand 'Or else I doubt I'll be able to hold a wand for the rest of the year.' With that thought, Harry drifted into a dreamless sleep.  
><strong><br>**


	5. Chapter 5

The start of December marked a very cheerful month not only for the students but for the teachers as well. All the staff was doing their best to make the upcoming Christmas a great one. The groundskeeper Hagrid had brought in his yearly twelve evergreens, Flitwick was busy levitating ornaments on to the trees, and McGonagall was busy transfiguring decorations to be put in the great hall.

The Great Hall looked Magnificent on the first day of the winter break. Too bad most of the students weren't around to see it, for they were on their way back home for the Holidays. Harry Potter was among those students and was currently sitting in the fourth compartment of the Hogwarts express along with Maximus Boridius and Shannon Foursythe. Harry was reading a rather large tome while Shannon and Max were engaged in a surprisingly close game of chess.

"Queen to E-5." Max said and watched as his Queen stabbed her sword into Shannon's Bishop

Shannon smirked "Rook to A-7, Checkmate." She grinned victoriously

Max groaned in frustration at having been beaten again. "Why do I always loose?" He asked rhetorically

"It's because you suck." Harry answered not looking up from his book

"Shut up Potter." Max said angrily "I still don't understand how you can be so good at chess when you never play."

"That's the difference between me and you, I don't suck."

Max gave Harry his strongest glare which did nothing to faze Harry.

"Soooo what are you doing for Christmas Harry?" Shannon said in an attempt to break the tension

"I will be moving my stuff from Potter Manor, to my uncle's inn that he's trying to open up." Harry answered still not looking up from his book

Shannon blinked in surprise "I thought that one of the new laws that were passed prohibit werewolves from owning a property."

"They do, but I own the property, or at least the Potter's do." He said "And The ministry shouldn't be able to do anything, but they, in a way that only our magical government could do, didn't even give my uncle a chance to explain that he doesn't even own the property and basically just gave a 'no' to his request for wards without giving an explanation. So now, we have a court date in about ten days to get this whole mess straightened out."

"And why didn't you tell us that you were going to court?" Max asked

'You didn't ask and I didn't feel like telling."

Max frowned at the response but didn't feel like arguing any further, knowing that he'd just be insulted a bit more. "Anyway, off the topics of boring politics, did you hear about the Harpies and Wasps game? I heard it was unbelievable..."

The topics of conversation didn't stray from quidditch for the rest of the trip, Shannon had gotten bored about five minutes into the conversation and left to find some of her other friends in their year. Harry and Max were later joined by Cedric who had just came in to say hi and had gotten caught up in their conversation. Max and Cedric were slightly awed and creeped out at the way Harry was able to keep up with the conversation, with still reading his book at a reasonably fast pace. They arrived at King's Cross half an hour later.

Harry spotted Remus standing near the barrier of the platform and calmly walked over to him.

"Hey Moony." Harry said approaching him

"Harry!" Remus said happily and went over to hug Harry

"Moony! What did I say about ruining my rep?" Harry said slightly embarrassed as he was hugged but nonetheless, He returned the hug "Wow, does your life really suck that bad for you to miss me this much?"

"Shut up Harry. Now where are these friends of yours that you have been writing to me about?"

Harry looked around, trying to spot Max and Shannon. He finally did when he looked over to the far left corner of the station. Max seemed to be talking excitedly to a woman who could only be Shannon's mother if the resemblance was anything to go by. The woman was very beautiful in that old pureblood way, she had high cheekbones, slanted gray eyes, and long dark brown hair that Shannon seemed to have inherited.

Next to her was a large, imposing man, he had dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. He was smiling down at Shannon as she flushed red from something he asked her. And then there was a boy who looked to be around seven, he was practically an exact replica of his father.

Harry pointer them out to Remus and made their way over there. Max noticed them coming over and turned to greet them.

"Hey Harry." He said then looked to Remus "You must be Harry's uncle, nice to meet you." He shook Remus' hand

"And you must be Maximus, nice to meet you as well." Remus said with a smile, but didn't notice the frown that crossed Max's face when he said his name then turning to Shannon "And you must be Shannon, nice to meet you." Remus stuck his hand out to shake, she looked slightly hesitant but shook his hand

"Harry" Max said his attention now back on him "This," He said motioning to the man behind him "is Octavious Foursythe, call him Augie for short. And this," He said now motioning to the woman "fetching young woman is Selean Foursythe." The woman now known as Selean looked amused at his comment. "And this," he said hoisting the Augie lookalike up by his arms much to the boy's protests "Little girl is Quintus."

"Let me down Max! And I am not a girl!" said the squirming boy who was finally able to break free after he kicked Max in the calf, much to the amusement to those watching

"Ahh so this is the Potter heir that dear little Maxie has told us so much about." Selean said looking a Harry "You've been the topic of many of his letters, as well as Shannon's."

Shannon was now blushing slightly and looking at her feet. Harry didn't react to this but did notice Max frown for a second. "Nothing bad I hope."

"Oh no no no, definitely nothing bad." Selean said "Which is surprising considering who your father and uncle are. Why, I'm surprised that Minerva hasn't quit yet if you were raised by this one." she pointed at Remus

Remus gave her a sheepish smile, "Yeah, I surprised as well. I remember a time or two when Minnie would threaten Dumbledore with resignation if he didn't try and discipline us. Turns out that he probably gave us the easiest detentions we ever had." He said with a wistful smile

Augie saw his daughter look at him questionably "We somewhat know eachother dear. Your friend Harry's uncle and his band of misfits were two years below us, and somewhat legends at Hogwarts back in the day. I still remember my seventh year Halloween feast," he said with a smile "Merlin knows how you got all the pumpkins to attack the Slytherin Table."

"Trade secret." Remus said mysteriously "Anyway, we must be going now we've got places to be, things to take care of."

They all said goodbye and left with last words of merry Christmas.

* * *

><p>"Okay cub, now that we have all of your stuff from the Manor, ready to go see Marauders?" Remus asked as they exited the manor and headed towards the edge of the wards<p>

"Yeah, now crack us out of here." Harry said when they passed the tree that signaled the end of the wards

Remus grabbed Harry's and disappeared with a resounding crack.

Several hundred miles away, Harry and Remus appeared at the Diagon Alley apparation point. Remus then started to lead Harry down to the entrance to Knockturn Alley. They passed a few shady characters and more than a few hags but no one bothered them. Harry idly read the names of the stores that they passed, like 'Questionable Concoctions' who sold potions of questionable nature and 'Meet ya Creature' which sold magical creatures that you probably wouldn't find in Diagon Alley.

Remus lead Harry down into the deeper parts of the Alley and around a back corner which opened up into a pretty wide open, square, courtyard with a few shops surrounding it. The largest shop sat at the back wall and was named 'Borgin and Burke's' to the left of that was a old rare book store whose name had faded long ago.

To the right of Borgin and Burke's was an building with dusty windows and chipped paint. There was no front display window, no fancy sign that told what the store sold, nor was there any distinguishing marks or designs. But Harry recognized it from the picture the goblins showed him those months back. This was the establishment that was soon going to be called Marauders.

"Now I haven't really been working on the outside yet, I've been working on the inside mostly. The place was really worn down and it took me a month just to get all the broken furniture, dust, and pests removed, even with magic, Alfred, and Mipsy's help it was hard." Remus said walking up to the door which looked surprisingly new in contrast to the rest of the building.

Remus pulled out a key and unlocked the door. The inside was, Harry noticed, completely empty with the exception of a dining table and some chairs. It was also very big on the inside with high ceilings which made it look even bigger. The floors were a dark wood which looked to be recently polished, and the walls were a light tan color which gave the room a more calming relaxing feel to it.

"Mipsy and Alfred have been in charge of cleaning the floors and repainting the walls and I have been putting extension charms on all the rooms. I've never been particularly good with charms, that was always Lily's speciality," He said the last bit with a sad smile

"I think I'm going to have a specialist take a look and make the space larger, the place is actually a lot bigger than it looks from the outside but it's still not big enough. I think this place used to be a book store before it closed if the rotting bookcases we threw out were any clue to what it was. I think it was shut down in the nineteen-forties when the war was going on."

Harry stayed silent the whole time, content with just listening to Remus talk. It seemed to Harry that Remus was quite excited to have his own shop and never have to be worried about getting fired.

Remus led him upstairs which opened up into a huge room with nothing in it. "We still have to add walls to this floor which will become rooms and I'm sure that the specialist will know someone who can do it for us."

"And this," Remus said leading Harry down to the other end of the room "Will be your room."

Harry looked at him and said "I thought you said you already have a room ready for me."

Remus smiled and pointed up at the ceiling showing a string and trapdoor. "That's your room."

He pulled the string and a ladder came down, he climbed up closely followed by Harry. It was an attic room with a slanted ceiling and a small window looking out over the Ally. The floors and walls were the same color as the rest of the building, dark wood floors and tan walls. This room has furniture even if it was sparse, a bookcase, bed, desk, and wardrobe all made out of the same wood as the floor.

"It's not much and you can decorate it yourself and I know how you like your privacy so I just thought that-" He said nervously before being cut off by Harry

"Remus, it's great thanks."

He smiled "I'm glad you like it, how bout we go get your stuff and get unpacked?"

"Sure, Accio Trunk." Harry said while giving a counter clockwise, oval motion with his wand much to Remus' horror

There was a loud crash heard downstairs before the trunk came flying through the hole on the floor and landed next to Harry. Remus was pretty amazed at the use of a fourth year spell by a first year before remembering this was Harry. Snapping out of his thoughts he turned back to Harry.

"Harry, you just did magic."

"Very observant of you Remus." He said sarcastically and started to unpack his trunk

"Harry, you just did magic outside of school, underaged, and not in Potter manor."

Harry's head snapped up "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Harry began pacing the room.

Remus looked out the window and noticed the lack of ministry owl. 'Huh, when James cast that hex on Snape back in third year in Diagon the ministry owl was there in seconds.' He looked back to the frantic Potter heir pacing the room.

"Maybe if I went back to Potter manor, the owl won't find me." Harry mused

"Harry."

"I could argue my case out in-front of the Wizengamot."

"Harry!"

"We could break into the Misuse of Underage Magic and erase the record of me casting it."

"HARRY!" Remus finally shouted

"What, I'm brainstorming."

"There's no owl." He pointed out

Harry looked out the window which had the distinct lack of an owl "Huh, that's odd."

They sat in silence for five more minutes "Harry, cast another spell."

He looked reluctant but curious at the same time, he cast a hair growth jynx at Remus which was easily dodged

They both waited a few more minutes in which no owl appeared.

"What do you think is going on?" Harry asked

"I don't know, but I have a hunch that it has do with your wand."

Harry looked at his wand, it still looked as plain as ever. "I guess, it is old enough that it predates the ministry. It's hard to place tracking charms on something that was made before you existed."

"I guess you can use all the magic you want now, I'm not going to stop you. As long as you don't hurt yourself of break anything that is." Remus looked slightly apprehensive at the idea of a child using magic unsupervised, but remembered this was Harry. The kid would probably only use it to practice spells, not pull pranks.

"Sweet!"

* * *

><p><p>

"Harry! Ready to go have dinner at the Tonks' house?" Remus called upstairs. It was currently Saturday, two days before the trial and they were going to go meet with Ted Tonks one last time before the trial. Remus had met with him plenty over the last couple of months to devise a strategy for their court date, and surprisingly enough Ted had come up with the same tactic as Harry. Make the Ministry and indirectly Fudge look bad, and they will probably do anything to save face.

"Yeah I'm coming! Just let me get my shoes on." Harry called

Harry finally found his shoes and came down stairs. Remus once again admired how much Harry looked like James, it really was uncanny. They'd probably be twins if it wasn't for Harry's eyes.

Harry decided to go for the muggle look with jeans, white t-shirt, nike shoes, and a black hoodie. His hair was exactly like James', messy and untameable at about an inch in length making it less messy.

"Stop looking at me, it's kind of creepy." Harry said snapping Remus out of his thoughts

"Er-uh, yeah sorry. Got lost in my thoughts for a second there." Remus laughed nervously "Now let's go. Hold down the fort Mipsy!" Remus shouted to the elf who was unpacking some beer mugs

Harry and Remus walked down the cold alleyway to Diagon's apparation point. They enjoyed the fresh air that the nearly deserted alley, neither of them had been outside since Harry's yearly visit to his mother and both were feeling a bit stir-crazy.

They got the the apparation point and disappeared with a resounding crack, only to reappeared in a muggle neighborhood on the outskirts of London. It was a nice neighborhood with kids playing outside in the snow and christmas lights on each house. Almost every house had a snowman or some sort of snow sculpture in front of it. A very cheerful and happy neighborhood indeed.

"What was the house number again?" Remus asked Harry

"8753." Nymphadora had made sure Harry got their house address

"8749, 8750, 8751, 8752, oh there we go."

The house was like all the others only this house didn't have a car and had a very life like snow sculpture of a dragon in the front. Remus and Harry went up to the door and rang the bell. They were answered by a fair haired, big bellied man with a walrus mustache.

"Ah Remus nice to see you." He shook hands with Remus

"Good to see you Ted, I hope you had a good Christmas." Remus said with a smile

"Yes, yes it was a very good Christmas." He then turned to Harry "Damn, when Remus said you looked like James he wasn't kidding. You could pass for his twin."

"I get that alot." Harry said

"Yes, well let's not stay out here in the cold. Andy was just making some biscuits and some tea." He ushered them through the door

The house had a very welcoming feel to it, the walls were wood paneled on the bottom half and tan on the top half. It was very muggle in design, there were no moving pictures despite how many there were nor was there any magical Christmas decorations.

They moved into what looked like the living room since there were two very comfortable looking couches in it. There was a fire crackling next to the Christmas tree and still had stockings hung on it.

"Take a seat, Andy should be out momentarily."

Harry's guess was right, the couches were very comfortable. Remus and Ted engaged in some small talk about some new laws passed or who got fired recently at the ministry and the like. Harry was content with listening to the conversation and looking at some of the framed pictures. Most of the pictures had Nymphadora in them as a child, he saw one of her as a baby and it looked like she has been a Metamorphmagus her whole life guessing by the baby with blue hair in the photo.

Harry had looked up on Metamorphmagus' after he found out his sparring partner was one, some had their powers manifest after they age a while and some manifest right when they're born. Nymphadora was the later.

Ted and Remus had just finished talking about the new underage restriction laws when a woman walked in carrying a tray full of biscuits.

"Ah, there you are Andy." Ted said getting up from the couch "I was beginning to get worried that I'd never taste your delicious biscuits." He said jokingly

"Well I only ever make them when we have some decent company over, unlike whenever you're home." She jokes "Nice to see you by the way Remus."

"Nice to see you too Andy, I hope you had a good Christmas?"

"I did indeed have a good Christmas thanks for asking." She smiled and then turned to Harry "Merlin, you look like James."

"I get that alot." Harry said politely despite being annoyed at the comparison. He was honestly getting tired of people saying he looks like his father.

"Yes, well Dora has told us all about you." Ted said "When she first told us that she found a sparring partner and that he was a first year, we were kind of worried that you'd get hurt. But then we find out you were good enough to hold your own against Dora, that's pretty impressive."

"Thanks." Harry didn't really know what else to say. He was a little annoyed that Nymphadora told her parents about him, but decided that it didn't really matter. He hadn't told her not to and really it's not like Her parents were going to do anything to him. Harry mentally berated himself for thinking stupidly.

"Speaking of Dora," Andy said "She should be joining us for dinner, she's currently a friend house and should be coming back soon. But let's discuss the trial before dinner, get a lot off our minds and what not."

"Of course, of course." Remus said turning serious when the conversation turned to this topic

"Last time we met, we were discussing how we should bring Fudge and Umbridge into all of this." Ted said "And this may be somewhat of a dirty tactic, but I was thinking that if we could show how much the werewolf attacks have gone up since they passed those laws we can blame it on Fudge and Umbridge for letting those laws pass."

"At this point, I don't really care if we accuse Fudge of being an murder. I just want to get my inn open." Remus said

"My thoughts exactly. This will be somewhat short notice since the trial's in two days, but I think this will be our best bet in winning."

"I agree, how much have the werewolf attacks gone up anyway?"

"In the last month, thirteen percent." Harry answered before Ted, causing Ted to look at him in surprise. "The Hogwarts library keeps records of everything, including Daily Prophet articles. I did a little research and found out, wasn't hard." He answered the unasked question

"A true Ravenclaw you got here Remus." Andy said "Just like his mother, but with James' looks. A deadly combination if you ask me."

"I've noticed that too, but don't let him being smart fool you he's a prankster at heart." Remus grinned

"Can we please stop talking about me and get back to the case?" Harry said annoyed even though he was secretly pleased at being compared to his mother

"Have I ever told you about the time he got stuck in a tree by his underwear." Remus ignored Harry's plea

"No you haven't, although I would love to hear this story." Ted said amused

"Well it started out with Harry trying to get a kite out of a tree when-"

"Remus, you finish that story and I'll tell them what happened last Christmas." Harry threatened

Remus shut up pretty quickly.

Ted started chuckling. "Oh, I forgot how amusing you Marauders are."

Remus smiled at what he thought sounded like a compliment, and was about to respond when they heard a loud crash from outside followed by some creative swearing.

Andy smiled "Ah, that must be Dora."

The front door opened up and Nymphadora walked in. "Mum!" she called

"In the living room honey, Harry's here along with Mr. Lupin." Andy called back

When Tonks heard that her first year sparring partner was there, she rushed into the room. Her usual bubblegum pink hair was changed to white, green, and red for the Holidays.

"Harrikins!" she said excitedly and moved to give him a hug only to be met with the business end of his wand.

"Two things, alright? First off, don't call me that. Secondly, I don't hug." Harry glared

Tonks pouted but turned slightly red when she saw Remus. "Hi." she said lamely

Remus smiled "Hi, I'm Remus. We met once but you might have been too young to remember."

"I remember." Tonks said still blushing. Harry filed away the fact that Tonks has a crush on his uncle to use as blackmail for later.

A ding was heard from the kitchen. "Oh, dinner's ready." Andy said "Why don't you all move to the table and I'll bring everything out?"

The dinner lasted for an hour and a half with no excitement happening. Stories were told, food was eaten. Just a regular dinner. Harry and Remus left a while later with the promise of coming over and having dinner again. They headed back to the inn, both tired and in need of sleep.

Harry fell asleep happy that he asked the Tonks' for help on their case. He was positive they would win their case, and was also positive that the trial would be amusing to watch. They were basically crucifying Fudge and Umbridge.

Harry gave a sigh as he closed his eyes, Monday would be a good day.

#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%

Monday morning, Harry and Remus were up bright and early to get to the Ministry on time for their trial. Remus had on a nice pair of black robes, while Harry once again went for the muggle look and was wearing brown cargo pants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie.

"Mipsey! Alfred! Hold down the fort!" Remus yelled upstairs where he knew the two elves were working on the plumbing.

Harry and Remus quickly got to the apparation point and disappeared with a loud crack.

The Ministry of Magic itself was an impressive structure that was built underground the heart of London. Normally, there are two ways to enter the building, one would be to Floo directly into the Atrium, but seeing as they don't yet have a Floo Connection this way was not an option. And the other would be to use the visitor's entrance which was a simple red phone booth in an unremarkable street where one would have to type in the code to gain access. It was here that Remus and Harry appeared.

They both entered the phone booth and closed the door behind them. Remus typed in the numbers 6-2-4-4-2 which spelled M-A-G-I-C.

"Not very original." Harry commented

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic, what is your name and what is your business today?"A female voice called out of the telephone

"Remus Lupin and Harry Potter here to attend trial number eighty seven." Remus answered

" Your trial will be held on the tenth floor. Show your wands to the front desk and have a nice day." The voice said while two buttons fell out of where you would normally get change from. They said 'Case 87' on them.

The booth then started to lower into the ground and went for about fifty feet before coming to a stop. Harry stepped out of the booth and took his first sight of the ministry.

The ceiling was a weird royal blue that was decorated with moving golden symbols and at least fifty feet high. There were also two magnificent golden staircases leading up to a balcony that looked out over the atrium and went around the huge room leading to some offices and bathrooms. Down both sides of the hall, fireplaces were built into the walls. The left side seemed to be for witches and wizards to arrive while the right side seemed to be used for departures.

There was a golden fountain that depicted the magical races. A group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in the middle of a circular pool. Tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. The last three were all looking up at the witch and wizard. Jets of water were flying from the ends of the two wands, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblin's hat, and each of the house-elf's ears. It was a very beautiful fountain, even though it shows how big headed wizards and witches are, thinking themselves above all else.

"Harry this way." Remus called, yanking Harry out of his observations. Remus led him to a desk with a long line in-front of it, but thankfully it was moving quickly.

While they were waiting, Remus was pointing somethings out to Harry. They saw a fire breathing chicken, a man whose hand was replaced with his wand, and the most strange was the man whose hair was constantly on fire.

Ten minutes later, it was finally our turn. "Wands please." The teller said in a bored tone

Remus gave his wand to her to be registered, but seeing as Harry was underage, he didn't have to turn his in.

"You can gather them on the other side, purpose of your visit today at the Ministry of Magic?" The teller asked in the same bored tone

"We're here to attend the gathering of the Wizengamot." Remus said

The teller took notice of their buttons and let them pass. Remus regained his wand and lead Harry over to the elevator.

"Where did Ted say he'd met us?" Harry asked

"In the courtroom, he should be there by now."

They squeezed into the elevator along with seven other people, it was very cramped and it didn't help matters when a very fat guy was eating a turkey sandwich with what seemed to be two pounds of turkey on it. He was oblivious to those around him, too wrapped up in his turkey flavored day-dream.

The elevator moved in all directions in very jerky motions. There were golden balls overhead that were supposed to be held onto for support. Unfortunately, Harry was too short to reach these and had to settle for being tossed around the elevator much to Remus amusement.

"You could hold my hand you know." Remus said grinning as Harry rammed into the door for the second time.

Harry glared at Remus from his spot on the floor "I'd rather have my ass stuck to the ceiling again you pediophile."

They finally arrived on the tenth floor to Harry's great relief. They walked down the hallway to courtroom number seven where the trial would be held. They walked through the door and into a room that had a dungeon feel to it, which was amusing on its own considering it was the highest level in the building, regardless if it was underground or not. One side of the room held witches and wizards dressed in plum coloured robes with an elaborate silver "W" on their breasts and were looking the epitome of "royalty" as they sat above them and looked down on them as if they were insignificant ants.

Albus Dumbledore sat in the middle of the stands on a raised platform, Harry guessed it was the only place that a Chief Warlock can sit in. To Dumbledore's right sat Fudge and to his left sat a scribe, diligently writing everything said in the courtroom down.

Opposite of the Wizengamot was what Harry could only guess (Although his guesses were usually accurate) to be the visitors stands, it the group of scattered wizards and witches was anything to go by. Harry spied Ted in the upper row of benches motioning them to come and join him.

"Hi Ted." Remus smiled when they finally got over to him "Where's Andy? I thought she'd said she'd be here."

Over dinner at the Tonks', Ted and Andy told Harry and Remus how they work as a team. Andy doing most of the research and planning, while Ted works with the client and in Wizengamot.

"She couldn't be here I'm afraid." He said with a sad smile "We just got another case and the client wanted to meet immediately with us, I obviously couldn't go so we had to split up for the day."

"Ahh, I see." Remus said

They sat there and made small talk about quidditch and some of the cases that were happening. Ted decided to tell Harry about the Wizengamot, there are always two times that the Wizengamot meet in full trial, for sure. They must meet within seven days of the winter or summer solstice, the only other time the Wizengamot meet is when criminals are at a high like when a dark lord is around. Usually on one solstice trial days, there can be over three hundred different cases they must go through. Sometimes the meetings last for days on end.

Ted went on to explain some of the other inner workings of the Wizengamot when their number was called.

"Number eighty seven!"

Ted strode forward from where they were sitting in long, confident strides. Remus and Harry followed shortly behind him. Ted motioned them to a bench to the side of the main floor while he himself decided to stay standing.

Harry looked at some of the faces of the Wizengamot, most looked bored, some looked tired, and more than a few were sneering in his direction. Harry guessed it was because how he was dressed in muggle clothes.

He saw a toad-like woman glaring at Remus with something akin to hatred in her eyes. Harry recognized her as Dolores Umbridge from some of the newer daily prophet photos, she was usually standing next to Fudge with a sickly-sweet smile on her face.

'So that's her?' Harry thought 'Ugly little bitch.' He thought with amusement

A very stern looking woman spoke up "We are here to hear the case of one Remus John Lupin who is appealing the decision made by one Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, to refuse Remus John Lupin the right to ward the premises of his new business," she began in a commanding voice. "The reason, given by Madam Umbridge, was that the establishment that was to be warded is owned by a-" She stopped to glare at the annoyingly smug woman "Dangerous half-breed and if given the opportunity to ward such a large premises within Knockturn Alley, could use said premises as a headquarters for his kind against the ministry."

Harry mentally cussed Umbridge for being so bigoted. 'At least her claim is complete bullshit, this trial might be done sooner than I thought.'

"While the choice to deny Mr. Lupin is questionable." The stern woman started again "We do have laws against non-wizards from warding establishment such as Mr. Lupin's."

"Madame Bones." Ted spoke up "There is no denying that there have been uprising of werewolves in recent times, the laws that have been placed have been put there for a reason. But let us not forget that these laws are also a hindrance to one such upstanding citizen such as Mr. Lupin." He motions to Remus

"The laws that have been passed through this honorable body prohibit someone like Mr. Lupin from living a happy and prosperous life. The Ministry has no record of Mr. Lupin breaking a law in his life. No underage magic, no selling of illegal creatures, no accounts of any crime whatsoever. Nothing at all." Ted finished

"Is there a point to all of this Mr. Tonks?" A plump man spoke up

Ted nodded his head "Yes there is as a matter of fact. It seems that the only reason Mr. Lupin is being denied wards for his property is because he is a werewolf. If he were not a werewolf, would you deny him as you have done so now?"

"Of course not." The plump wizard said

"Then why have you done so now? What is the difference between the average wizard and Mr. Lupin besides the fact that Mr. Lupin is a werewolf?" Silence met his question so he carried on.

"The Ministry has branded a dark creature-"

"Because he is one!" Umbridge cut Ted off

"Is he Madam Umbridge?" Ted answered quickly as if he was expecting her to interrupt him. "Mr. Lupin is repressed by the ministry and the general public because he turns into a dark creature once a month, something he has no control over. Every other day except for the night of the full moon, Mr. Lupin is fine. There is no reason Mr. Lupin should be denied the opportunity to own a property." Ted paused for a break and to regain his thoughts

"The reason Mr. Lupin is being denied is because he is a werewolf, we have established this. The law prohibiting so called half-breeds from owning property is there because the ministry doesn't want dark creatures to have a rallying point. If werewolves are so great a threat that they are prohibited from warding a property, then why are wizards allowed to? May I remind you that the most dangerous being in the last thirty years was a wizard."

"I see where you are going with this Mr. Tonks." Madame Bones spoke up. "You're trying to say that there is no difference between a wizard and a werewolf."

"Exactly Madame Bones, th-"

"But werewolf attacks are at an all time high at the moment, we need to keep track of them."

"Let me ask a question Madame Bones, when did the rise in werewolf attacks start?"

She thought for a moment "About seven months ago."

"Seven months ago." Ted repeated "Right after all of the new laws prohibiting werewolves were passed by Madam Umbridge. You're oppressing and entire species, one that makes up a decent part of our population, and the establishment that Mr. Lupin would like to open up would be a refuge for them with no discrimination. It would do a lot more good than harm in stopping attacks, for then they could have a place to stay without owning a property." Ted took another pause to collect his thoughts

"If someone told you that you can't work because you are a werewolf, would you stop working? No. And when some aurors come to arrest you because you are working would you fight back? I know I sure as hell would." Ted shook his head disbelievingly

"Madame bones, have any of the attacks against auroras happened when a werewolf was transformed?" She shook her head "No, the attacks cannot be blamed on werewolves. They were just defending their livelihood. The attacks can, however, be blamed on the new laws. Making the ones who let the laws pass, including Madam Umbridge and Minister Fudge, a murder indirectly."

As soon as Ted finished his rant, all chaos broke loose. The officials were yelling at one another, Dumbledore was trying to calm everyone, Umbridge turned an unbelievable shade of red in the face and was furiously glaring at Ted, and Fudge looked like he was about to take a large crap. Fudge's face, Harry thought, looked particularly amusing.

Dumbledore finally got tired of trying to yell over everyone and set off a few loud bangs with his wand which left Harry's ears ringing. Everyone immediately quieted down.

"Mr. Tonks," Dumbledore said "As enlightening as you are making this trial, I believe we got off topic. You are here to get Mr. Lupin the right to ward his property."

"Yes you're right, Chief Warlock. I did get off track there didn't I?" Ted laughs at himself " As to the matter of getting Mr. Lupin's property warded, it is solved quite simply."

"Is it now?" Madame Bones asked

"Yes, the law restricts half-breeds from warding a property that they own."

"Yes, we all know. Now what's your point?" One of the members spoke up irritably

"My point is that this law doesn't apply to Mr. Lupin because he does not own the property in question."

"He doesn't own the property." Madame Bones said slowly 'Then just what was the point of going through all of that!" She said angrily

"To get these ridiculous laws removed of course." Ted said simply

"And just who is this mysterious owner?" Umbridge sneered, her face was still unbelievably red.

Harry spoke up for the first time "That would be me." His voice echoed around the room.

Everyone stared at him and he met their gazes unblinkingly.

"A muggle." Umbridge said disbelievingly "A muggle owns the property." She laughs "Oh, that's rich."

"Madam Umbridge." Harry spoke calmly but coldly, his voice going all over the room making Dumbledore's white eyebrows shoot up "Please refrain from insulting the heir of Ancient and Noble House of Potter. I might just file an injunction against you to keep your mouth shut."

Getting over the shock that this supposed muggle was indeed Harry Potter, the heir of an extremely old and respected family, she sneered at him and continued "Regardless, you are not of majority and cannot request wards for a property of any kind; nice try boy, but you fail," she said with a smirk.

"While that is true, I can however request that my guardian do such tasks. There are no laws against it, neither you nor the ministry do anything about it. Unless of course you'd like to form a whole new set of laws just for me, and I'd be flattered if you did, deeming me and my business that important. But I'd rather that you didn't." Harry finished sarcastically

"Why do you listen to this nonsense? He is obviously a dark wizard in training." She sneered

"Chief Warlock," Harry said happily "I'd like to file an injunction against Madam Umbridge for her slander of the Potter name." Harry was glad the Potter's were an Ancient and Noble house, otherwise he would have no power in the Wizengamot.

"Noted, Mr. Potter. And I think we have enough evidence to vote on the case now."

They did a quick majority vote which ended in their favor by a landslide, much to Remus' delight.

Remus, Harry, and Ted packed up their things which wasn't much other than Ted's briefcase and a Rubix Cube Harry was playing with. They left the courtroom with smiles on their faces. They knew that they probably just caused a huge change in magical Britain for the werewolf community, and in true Marauder fashion, it was by causing chaos.

'This will definitely make the paper tomorrow.' Harry thought 'We might even make the front page, it will probably the best advertising we'll ever get.'

**AN:/ Well here it is, chapter 5 of my story. Sorry it took so long to update but I was on spring break for ten days and wanted to relax. Once again I must ask that if someone is willing to beta this story, send me a message and we'll go from there. Review as much as you can, until the next chapter.**

**ericlau99**


	6. Chapter 6

The red steam engine, named the 'Hogwarts Express', sat in King's Cross station on the morning of January 3rd. There was still an hour until it actually left the station, but families were already crowded around the train saying goodbye to their family that was leaving for school after their two and a half week vacation. There was only one student already on the train however.

Harry Potter sat in the fourth compartment from the front of the Express reading a Third Year Transfiguration text. His independent studies had helped him improve exponentially compared to what he'd improved had he learned with the rest of the class.

The rest of his class was currently learning how to transfigure bottle caps into buttons. How exciting.

Harry was currently learning how to transfigure a hat into a bunny. Not much more exciting, but it was better than what the rest of the class was doing.

His progression in Charms was much better than it was in Transfiguration. He was currently learning how to cast an illusion, which was very hard and learned in fourth year. The rest of the class was learning how to change the color of an object. Harry had learned that when he was eight out of necessity (Pranks).

But the achievement that he was currently most proud of was his progression in Occlumency. He had just started to learn how to conjure a shield of memories to confuse and disorient a person who knows legilimency. The author of the book he was learning out of said it usually took someone one year to get this point, so for him to get there in half a year was extraordinary.

There were faster ways to get to this point of course, someone continuously using legilimecy on you would eventually cause you to build up a natural shield. This unfortunately caused a lot of pain and needed someone experienced in legilimency.

Harry was so wrapped up in his book that he didn't notice the compartment door slide open.

"Sup Harry."

Harry looked up from his book to see Maximus slide into the seat across from him and was closely followed by Shannon. He gave a grunt for a response.

"Good to see you too." Max said happily "Thanks for that book you got me too, I've been wanting to get it for ages but never got the chance." Harry nodded his head absentmindedly

Max nudged Shannon with his elbow and motioned for her to say something, seeing as it got very awkward when Harry didn't give a response.

"Harry, uh." She paused to think of something to talk about "Didn't your uncle have a trial or something over break?"

Harry, still not looking up from his book, reached up onto the luggage rack and into a drawstring bag sitting next to his trunk. He pulled out a folded newspaper and tossed it on to Shannon's lap.

The title of the front page was facing her.

_Trial Causes Stirring in the Ministry_

_By: Rita Skeeter_

_Shannon looked up at Harry questioningly. When she received no response she huffed and started to read._

_On the morning of December 28, the usual, yearly winter solstice Wizengamot meeting was in session. There were 285 cases this year and none of them proved interesting except for one._

_Case number 87 seemed like a relatively easy case, ward permit rejection to a mister Remus Lupin. The rejection for wards was administered by Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, under the pretense that Mr. Lupin is a werewolf and if given the opportunity to ward such a large premises within Knockturn Alley, could use said premises as a headquarters for his kind against the Ministry._

_Mr. Lupin was being represented by Ted Tonks, who had argued his case more than adequately. Mr. Tonks not only proved Mr. Lupin's case, but also brought to light the issues of the new laws recently passed that prohibit werewolf rights._

_"It was a very moving case that Mr. Tonks presented to us." Lord Greengrass told us. "Now that these issues have come to light, I see the flaws in them and hope that we can mend and improve upon them."_

_But this was not the highlight of the trial dear reader, oh no not even close. Mr. Tonks had brought up the current increase in werewolf attacks and explained how and why they went up in numbers. I will not go into details, seeing as how the entire trial will be on the next page, but I will say that Mr. Tonks said that the blame for the increase in werewolf attacks could be put on those who passed the laws prohibiting a werewolf from getting a job. And guess who passed these new laws? Madam Umbridge and Minister Fudge._

_This reporter was lucky enough to have a friend in the courtroom to relay the events, and told that the Wizengamot was in pandemonium. One really must admire the nerve of Mr. Tonks and Mr. Lupin._

_When order was restored to the courtroom, Mr. Tonks stated that the matter of getting a ward permit for Mr. Lupin was solved rather easily. When asked how, he stated that the laws that prohibits werewolves from warding large properties such as Mr. Lupin's do not apply to Mr. Lupin because he does not own the property. When questioned who did, a eleven year old boy, dressed in muggle clothing spoke up. And that eleven year old just so happened to be Harry Potter, Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter and house seat on the Wizengamot._

_The decision maker for this trial was the statement of a eleven year old who later filed an injunction against Madam Umbridge for slander of the Potter name. Mr. Lupin received a positive vote in his favor shortly after, but this trial has raised questions._

_Is our Minister the cause for the deaths of hundreds? Has this just been the first domino on the road to change for the werewolf population? What will be the Ministry's reaction?_

_For the complete transcript of the trial, see page 2_

_For an interview with Remus Lupin, see page 5_

_For the recent werewolf restriction legislation, see page 9_

Shannon was processing the new information that Potter just helped cause a stirring in the Ministry. Max had been reading over her shoulder and had just finished.

"Well that's cool." Max grinned at the reading Harry.

Harry nodded his head, still not looking up from what must be an extremely interesting book.

"How's the inn coming along anyway?" Shannon asked now that she processed the information.

"Read the interview on page five." Harry finally talked "Now let me read in peace."

Shannon and Max looked at each other and shrugged. In the time that they knew Harry, they had learned not to bother them when he asks you to, else you find yourself hurt or embarrassed in some way or another.

The train ride back was uneventful, Cedric popped in to say hello, Max lost to Shannon in another game of chess, Harry finished his book and switched to another.

* * *

><p>Harry sat in his usual spot behind the desk in his room, large piles of parchment were stacked neatly on either side of him. There was a large stack of books on the floor next to his chair, the title of the top book read 'Animate to Inanimate Transfigurations Made Easy'. It wasn't an unusual sight to see a student studying so much material at this time of the year, especially for Ravenclaws. Harry was currently revising for his End of the Year Exams, they weren't nearly as important as fifth year OWL's or seventh year NEWT's. But they were, however, a way for him to measure his capacity so that he can feel safe to continue with his independent studies.<p>

He was positive that he didn't need to study for his Charms or his Transfiguration Exams, but he did anyway. He was afraid that there might have been something he had overlooked, deemed it not important enough to remember, and then have it appear on the exam. He wanted to be prepared for everything.

His personal study had made him much further ahead than the rest of the class, but it also made it so that he not only had to manage the information of his classes but the information of his independent study. He estimated that he was around third year level in Charms and Transfiguration, in all of his other classes he would probably be around second year but he couldn't tell when it came to DADA.

Karen Bromstien was a very capable Hit-Wizard before she retired, but she wasn't the best teacher unfortunately. But with all his sparring sessions that Harry had with Nymphedora, Harry guessed that he was very far ahead in DADA.

Harry looked up from his notes to see the the sun shining through his window on a gorgeous May afternoon. He sighed audibly, he really needed to get some fresh air.

Acting on a whim, he flicked his wand, making his books fly back into their correct places on their shelves. He then slipped on his shoes and started to wander aimlessly around the castle.

He thought about the quickly approaching summer and the newly opened 'Marauders' inn. The inn had been an instant success according to the letters Remus had sent him. In the interview Remus did for the 'Daily Prophet', he mentioned the reason why he needed wards for his property which lead to an entire explanation of his soon-to-be open business. The interview generated a lot of interest in Wizarding England to say the least.

So wrapped up in his thoughts that Harry didn't notice where he was until he was almost crushed by a large tree branch. He barely dodged it, it was only through sheer luck that he tripped on a root and stumbled slightly to the left.

He quickly backed up and out of the trees reach before it could try to crush him again. He watched the tree sway back and forth angrily, and that's when it hit him.

This was the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, where Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs would keep Moony company while he transformed.

Harry looked around and made sure no one was around. Once he was sure he wasn't being watched, he transformed into a black cat before dashing into the gap under the tree before it could crush him.

Harry had completed his Animagus Transformation two weeks ago, but had not yet told anyone, not even Remus whom he wanted to surprise. He chose a cat because it was the best choice if he wanted to use it at Hogwarts without being caught. Sure he could have become a panther if he wanted but it was too noticeable, in his cat form he could sneak around the castle whenever he wanted and with no one being the wiser.

Harry traveled through the long tunnel that he knew would eventually lead him to the Shrieking Shack. The darkness of the tunnel didn't bother him in his cat form, he could see every root and rock that would probably trip him if he were human at the moment. Finally he saw light at the end of the tunnel.

The passageway came out under the staircase which was nearly falling apart. Dust covered every available surface Harry could see, the air itself was so thick with dust that he could hardly breath.

Knowing from Remus' description of the shack, Remus made his changes upstairs in the bedroom. So Harry, still in his cat form, silently walked up the stairs which looked like they would break even under the light weight of the cat.

Fortunately, the stairs held and Harry made his way over to the only room on the second floor. The first thing that he noticed when he walked in was that he could still smell the scent of werewolf, even after all these years. The walls had claw marks running down them which gave the room a horror film feel to it. The only objects in the room was a bed, which looked to have been eaten by rats and moths in its years of neglect, and a nightstand which had one leg missing.

But what caught Harry's eye was what was sitting on the nightstand. It was a picture frame that was so covered in dust that you couldn't see the picture. Harry numbly walked over to the nightstand and picked up the picture. He wiped the dust off with the sleeve of his shirt revealing the smiling, mischievous faces of four people Harry had seen in many other photos.

The four Marauders standing side by side on the Hogwarts front lawn, their arms draped over each other's shoulders in brotherly fashion. The castle was looming over them in the background. Remus stood on the far left of the group, his face was tired as usual but it also held more happiness than Harry had ever seen. He had his arm draped around James' who looked every bit the prankster he was said to be. His eyes were shining with laughter and the mischievous grin he had on his face never disappeared. His glasses were slightly askew on his nose, and his hair was more messy than Harry's.

James had his arm wrapped around Sirius, who was looking as carelessly handsome as Harry had seen him in any of Remus' photos. His grin matched James' in mischievousness but he also gave a greatly exaggerated wink to the camera. And finally there was Peter, who happened to be a head shorter than the rest. His face was very mouselike and appeared somewhat nervous, but looked happy nonetheless to be included in the group. The photo seemed to have been taken in their sixth year but Harry couldn't tell for sure.

Harry set the photo back on the nightstand and sat on the bed, lost in thought. Remus had been somewhat reluctant to reveal anything to Harry about the Marauders, it seemed to bring up unwanted memories of the past. Eventually, Harry had gotten through to him about what really happened on November 1st and why it happened.

Remus told him about how the Fidelius Charm works with the secret keepers and all that. About how James all of a sudden wanted the best protection for his family and helped Lily ward the Potter Family cottage in Godric's Hollow when Harry had just turned three. James had never told Remus exactly why he wanted to step up security, only that he wanted it to be as safe as possible for his family.

They had made Sirius the secret keeper of the cottage which led to Death Eaters breaking into their home, James' death, and Lily's permanent place at Mungos. SIrius was on the run and had aurors tracking him, but Peter had gotten there first which ended in his death and the deaths of thirteen muggles. Black had been captured by aurors when they arrived at the scene, he was laughing insanely and staring blankly at the crater that was once Peter Pettigrew.

Harry knew that Black will pay for what he did to his family, Azkaban is not enough. It was personal.

Harry broke out of his thoughts and got up from the bed. He cast one last look at the room and picture before changing back into his cat form and left without looking back.

* * *

><p>Harry held an envelope which held the Hogwarts' seal in red wax over the front. Inside the envelope were his End of the Year Exam results. He looked around the Ravenclaw common room to see several excited or disappointed students discussing the contents of their own. He had just finished his exams a few days ago, something he was very glad for.<p>

As he predicted, the Transfiguration and Charms examinations were easy for Harry, his only problem was if they wouldn't mark him well if he added more information than necessary or answers that were above his school level.

The hardest examination had definitely been History which was just a mass regurgitation of names and dates that he had crammed the night before the actual exams. Astronomy was fairly easy, as was Herbology.

The Potions exam was rather hard but not in the way History had been, they had to brew a headache relief potion from memory which wasn't very hard for him thanks to his improving Occlumency skills. The hard part wasn't remembering it, it was actually brewing it. Harry and Maximus usually worked as a team with Harry cutting and preparing the ingredients and Maximus doing the actual brewing. It had been at least a month since he had brewed a potion on his own, when Max had been sick, so he was a bit rusty.

The Potion had come out almost perfect with only the slightest color difference. If it got him docked points, it wouldn't be enough to drop his grade especially with him being positive he hadn't missed a question on the theoretical part of the exam.

"Well, how did you do? I promise not to laugh" Max said cheekily, waving his third in the year rank around in his face. After the exams, each student's scores are tallied up and averaged out so they could be ranked amongst their peers. The results didn't show other student's ranks however, only your own. The professors must have thought it to be an invasion of privacy to see another student's rank.

Finally Harry broke the seal and read his results. He shielded Max's view much to the boy's chargin. "I did alright." Harry said, using occlumency to stamp the grin that threatened to appear on his face.

Max grinned, thinking his friend was embarrassed by getting a lower score than he had. He tried to snatch the result out of his friends hand only to have Harry quickly pull them away. This did nothing to deteriorate Max's determination. It quickly turned into a game of keep away, one that Max lost.

"Please Harry, just let me see." Max pleaded, having given up much to the onlookers disappointment "I promise to never bother you again."

"Somehow I doubt that, but whatever." Harry said dismissively and tossed his scores to Max.

Maax grinned happily but the grin quickly turned into a frown, Harry had beaten him! "First in the year and straight O's." he stated. Suddenly his third in year rank didn't seem to important.

The other first year Ravenclaws who had heard Max quickly came over to look a Harrys results. Harry was smirking at the pouting Max.

"Wipe that smirk off your face Potter!" Max said "I'm still saying I gave you a free ride to that 'O' in Potions."

While they were scored in a numerical way to allow for easier ranking, they only see their scores with a letter grade designation; "O" being the best and meaning Outstanding followed by "E" for exceeds expectations, "A" for acceptable, "P" for Poor, "D" for dreadful and "T" for troll. There was a rumor that any Ravenclaw that gets below an "A" for any class was kicked out of the house but that theory was never tested as the mandatory study groups made sure that never happened.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the fuming Maximus "And you didn't ride my coattails in Transfiguration and Charms?"

Max, being the extremely mature person that he is, stuck his tongue out at Harry and the proceeded to go pout in one of the armchairs.

Harry shook his head in amusement before turning his attention to the tiny Charms professor and their Head of House who was trying to get their attention.

"Quiet! Quiet!" The small man squeaked. Once everyone was quiet, he started to speak "I hope you all are happy with your results. And for the second through seventh years, I'm sure you know the drill, for those uninformed first year students, you should know that the number one ranked student of each year received a special gift from me should they be in Ravenclaw."

"So you have seven gifts then professor?" The sixth year prefect asked innocently, Ravenclaws were always first when it came to academics.

Flitwick chuckled "Indeed I do, thirty galleon gift certificates to 'Flourish and Blotts' for all those with the first rank!" Seven separate students, approached the tiny man, including Harry, to receive their gift certificates.

"Now you've all had a long couple of weeks, so enjoy the rest of the evening before the feast!" The professor said happily before leaving.

Harry and Max were making their way down to the feast after the rest of their house had left, they kind of got caught up in a debate about how Snape is a bad teacher and a douche in general. Don't ask them how it started, for it will just lead to another argument. Harry was for the 'Snape Douche' vote while Max was against it. Snape was a Potions Master after all! Their housemates who were watching in were very amused at the twos antics.

They were somewhat late for the feast so they were hurrying down to the Great Hall. Harry quickly turned a corner and literally ran into the topic of their conversation, the esteemed Potions Master himself.

The collision between the two caused Harry to stumble backwards slightly. He looked up to Snape's face to see a mixture of happiness and anger.

"Potter, eleven points for not watching where you're going." He said and stalked off, robes billowing behind him.

"He takes himself much too seriously." Harry commented dryly

Harry and Max finally made it to the Great Hall, barley before Dumbledore's pre-feast speech.

Their housemates were smiling amused at them as they sat down. "So, who won?" A third year asked them

"I did." Harry answered at the same time Max said "Tie."

Max glared at his smirking friend.

"Yes, welcome students to the end of the school year, and what a wonderful year it has been!" boomed the loud and cheerful voice of Albus Dumbledore. "I hope you all bear with an old man's ramblings for a short while yet while I make a few necessary announcements; I promise you will be sinking your teeth into a large delicious feast soon enough." he declared, eyes twinkling as he stood from his chair in the middle of the head table.

"First, I would like us all to thank Professor Bromstien on a wonderful year of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, unfortunately for us, she will be unable to return to us next year. Can I ask for a round of applause for Professor Bromstien in thanks and congratulations?" he said cheerfully as the majority of the school clapped politely for her.

"Ah, now there's the matter of the house cup," the headmaster announced cheerfully while the entire hall lapsed into silence. "In fourth place, Gryffindor, with two hundred and forty seven points, a wonderful effort!" he said, not surprising anyone, the Gryffindors already knew of their low score.

"In third place," he paused, with a large smile on his face as the students leaned in closely, "Hufflepuff with three hundred and two points," he announced. The puffs all cheered their own achievement while everyone else in the room gave polite applause also.

"In second place, with an impressive score, Ravenclaw house with four hundred and eight points!" at the declaration, the Ravenclaws all went silent while Silver and green banners magically appeared from the ceiling and cheers erupted from the snake's table.

"Which obviously means our winners this year, Slytherin house by the narrowest of margins with four hundred and nine!" he announced as the Slytherins continued to cheer.

Harry tried not to laugh at the outrage on their housemates faces and the sudden understanding on Max's. "Alright," Max said "you're right. He's a douche... whatever that means."

Max then started to tell their housemates what had happened in the halls right before they came to the feast. Most looked furiously up at the smirking Snape, there would be hell to pay. He didn't realise that he just started a war with the entire Ravenclaw House which just so happened to have a Marauder in it. Harry didn't really care about the House Cup, but any chance at making Snape's life hell was always something he made time for.

Harry took one last look at the castle that had been his home for the last nine months before boarding the train. Max and Cedric were talking about their summer plans as they followed behind him.

"So you're really going to the Quidditch World Cup?" Max asked excitedly

"Yep," Cedric said equally excited "Dad got us tickets for Christmas. It's in Tokyo this time, last time I think it was in Brazil."

"You're so lucky I wish I could go." Max gushed

"Yeah well, I heard that the next World Cup is going to be here in England."

"Really?" Max asked even more excited "That would be awesome if I could go." he said wistfully

They got into the same compartment that they had been in to go home for the Holidays. Harry pulled out a book on Transfiguration while Cedric and Max continued to talk about their summer plans.

"So what are you going to do Harry?" Max asked

"I don't know." He answered not looking up from his book, reminding Cedric and Max of their friend's weird ability to read and be aware of everything that's going on around him. "Probably help my uncle around the inn."

"Oh yeah, Marauders right?" Seeing Harry's nod he continued "I'll see if I can talk the Foursythe's into taking us there one day."

Harry nodded, Max mentioning the inn almost brought a smile to his face. According to Remus, it had been an instant success with the Dark Creature community. Remus even got the idea to make unbreakable rooms where werewolves could transform safely when the full moon hits.

No violence ever happened in Marauders, thanks to the wards. Once the goblins heard what the wards were for, they were more than willing to help seeing as some goblins may want to come out of their underground homes for some fresh air, a drink, and some sunlight every now and then. They put up anti-aggression wards to stop fights from happening or anyone wishing to cause someone within the wards harm from entering, anti-object wards to keep things like silver out, and the standard anti-portkey and apparition wards.

There were werewolves staying at the inn almost full time, along with the occasional vampire looking for some peace and quiet. Yes, it was safe to say that Marauders was doing very well.

* * *

><p>Remus Lupin sighed, he had just finished serving the last of the wizards and witches who had come for the lunch rush. Managing Marauders had probably been one of the hardest things he had ever done. He was extremely thankful that he had Mipsy and Alfred to help out, if he hadn't had those two he was positive that they wouldn't be open yet. Harry helped out on full moon nights, when Remus was 'indisposed'. The recently turned twelve year old didn't said he didn't mind since Remus let him use magic whenever he wanted, not that he could stop him anyway.<p>

Just as Remus was about to take his break, He saw five familiar faces who walked in slightly nervous. He quickly forgot about his much needed break and went to greet their new guests rather than having Mipsy do it to make a better impression.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Foursythe." Remus said with a smile "What brings you here, to my humble abode?"

Selean smiled at the familiar face. "Dear Maxie wouldn't stop complaining until we came to see came to see this place for ourselves. It looks much more comfortable and clean then the Leaky Cauldron."

The inn had transformed. Gone was all pieces of broken and unusable furniture, instead it was replaced by comfortable booths and chairs in the dining area. There was a sitting area that held comfortable leather couches and armchairs surrounding a fireplace. The guest rooms upstairs had been changed to look like a modern hotel room, with a dresser, bathroom, and bed. The furniture was a little sparse in the guest rooms but no one had complained so far.

Remus smiled down at the kids "Hello Max, Shannon, and, correct me if I'm wrong, Quintus?" He couldn't quite remember the youngest Foursythe's name, it had been over six months after all.

The small seven year old nodded his head shyly.

"Well I guess I should get you all seated and call Harry down from his room, he needs a break from studying anyway. It's all he does in the summer." He practically whined drawing a laugh from Max who had known of Harry's study habits at school.

Remus made his way up to Harry's attic room, it was passed all the guest rooms which were lined up on either side of him making a hallway. Harry's was at the very end of the hallway and around a corner. Remus pulled the string which sent down the ladder from the ceiling and proceeded up the ladder only to have his hair singed by fire on his way up.

Remus jumped back, almost falling off the ladder when he caught himself. "What the hell!" he shouted

He then, more cautiously, climbed up the ladder to find out what the hell the fire was.

It was Harry, who was dressed in only a pair of basketball shorts, practicing magic. He was controlling three orbs of flame that moved constantly around him like small meteors. Every once and awhile, one of the fireballs would launch itself out of its orbit around Harry to hit one of the targets attached to the wall. One of the two orbiting fireballs would then split in two to replace the used projectile. Remus must have stood there, halfway up the ladder with only his head poking out of the hole in the floor, watching Harry for at least a minute.

Suddenly, all three mini-meteors launched themselves at the largest target attached to the opposite wall from Harry. The target was destroyed quite magnificently in a burst of flame leaving an untouched wall behind.

"Yes, Remus." Harry asked, Remus got his first good look at his nephew. He was covered in sweat, the heat the fire caused must have been roasting.

"Max and the Foursythe's are here, I figured you'd want to say hello." Remus was still in a daze at the magic he had just seen from the recently turned twelve year old.

Harry perked up a bit at hearing that two of his friends were in the inn, but hid his excitement rom Remus well. He needed a break from studying anyway, maybe tomorrow he'd go to Potter Manor and do some flying. He needed to practice a little, he was going to try out for the quidditch team. He missed soccer and football, hopefully quidditch will provide an outlet for his athletic needs.

Wiping his face with a towel that he had handy near his location, Harry waved his wand a few more times and silently rearranged his room to what it was before, a fairly spartan style with a single bed and desk the only thing in the entire room that would suggest individuality in the slightest would be his larger than normal bookshelf and a picture of his mother.

Remus only now realized that Harry had been looking at him with a deadpan, "Stop staring at me pervert, if you don't mind, I would like to shower and get changed. Unless you want me parading around downstairs in my exercise clothes?"

Needing no further prompting, Remus climbed down the ladder and hurried off to serve anyone that had come in his absence. Unfortunately, no one did. So he decided to talk to the Foursythe's.

"So Remus," Augie said "Max tells us that Harry took first in his year grade wise, pretty impressive. I take it you had something to do with that."

Remus grinned sheepishly "I might have given him a few lessons, but He learned most of what he knows on his own."

"He's the same way at school." Max said "I think he only listened to the professors for the first two months before he started reading in class."

Selean raised an eyebrow "And Minerva was okay with this?"

"She wasn't at first," Max said "but when she asked Harry to stay after class one day she never bothered him again."

"Yes, Minerva sent me a letter right after that incident. It seems that Harry insulted her in some way, she wouldn't tell me how. And then shocked her by transfiguring his quill into a bird."

He told to the amazed family, it was OWL level transfiguration after all.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask Harry this," Max said "but most of the time, he's kind of unapproachable." Shannon shook her head in agreement "But how did you become Harry's guardian in the first place?"

"I've been his guardian since his parents - well yeah, he just calls me his uncle to simplify things." he explained.

"Why wouldn't he call you his dad"?" Quintus asked with confusion and a childlike innocence, "if you adopted him that is"?" Selean, Augie and surprisingly Max sent him disapproving looks while Shannon looked equally as interested.

"His mother is still alive, but he refuses to give up hope on her and move on. Besides, I wouldn't want to take James' place as the kid's father, being his guardian is complicated enough." he joked causing the other laughed.

"What happened to his mother"?" asked a surprisingly sad and serious Max, the others around the table sent him sad looks or winced when he asked the question.

Remus gave a tired sigh "Their house was attacked after the night the You-Know-Who was defeated," elaborated Remus carefully. "I don't want to say much as its not my place to do so if Harry hasn't felt the need to say so, but the attack ended in his father's death and his mother's permanent residence in St. Mungo's," he said sadly

The conversation had taken a turn for the worst, seeing as all those at the table had somber expressions on their faces.

"Let's get off such depressing topics," Remus said, trying to change the mood "How was your Summer so far?"

The conversation purposefully stayed away from serious topics and they forgot about the sad story that they had just told/heard.

"Afternoon." Harry said walking over to their table, hair still wet from his shower.

"Sup Harry, my man." Max said happily

Harry glared at him "Don't call me that."

"Good to see you too."

"Good afternoon, Lord Potter." Augie said jokingly "I was quite impressed with your showing at the trial over Christmas break."

"I hope you found it as entertaining as it was for me." Harry said dryly

"Indeed." Augie said smiling "I especially liked the part when you filed the injunction against our beloved Under Secretary."

Harry shrugged nontrivially "She was asking for it."

Aguie and Selean gave light chuckles while Max and Shannon traded grins at Harry's audacity towards the Ministry.

Max and the Foursythe's stayed around to eat and chat with Harry since Remus had to go take care of other customers. They left around an hour later, promising to visit sometime soon.

Harry told Remus he was going back up to his room to 'study', which Remus translated into playing with fire but didn't comment. A tired Harry went to bed that night in a room that smelled like smoke and charcoal. He was secretly happy to see Max and Shannon today, he had grown fond of them over the year and had missed them despite how he acted towards them.

**AN:/ Here's the sixth chapter in my story. I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone's interested. The next chapter will have a lot of quidditch in it but it will also be Harry's entire second year, seeing as Neville will come in Harry's third year. I've already got some good ideas to make the story more interesting, but I need help on one decision. I don't know if I want Remus in a relationship with Tonks or not, I find their relationship in the book kind of cradle robberish. So I'm going to let you all decide, Tonks or no Tonks? Anyway write lots of reviews and keep reading my story. **

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	7. Chapter 7

"Hey Harry wait up!" Max yelled as he raced after his walking friend who was, once again, doing his weird reading multitasking thing. Currently he was dodging around students in the crowded hallway as he read some advanced Charms book that Max couldn't hope to understand.

They had just gotten back to school a week ago and were already back into the routine. Wake up, shower, go to class, lunch, more class, dinner, homework, free time (study time for Harry), go to sleep and do it all over again.

Professors were repeating the basics that students might have forgotten over the break. Harry, of course, was extremely bored in all his classes seeing as he had basically been practicing and studying non-stop over the break. He had taken to reading during class like he had last year. The professors (minus Snape) had no problems with it, as long as he proved he could cast the spells or already knew the material that was being taught.

Harry was somewhat peeved that he couldn't skip a grade or get into any advanced classes, apparently it was against Ministry regulation according to Flitwick when he asked the tiny professor. The only way he could learn anything advanced from any of the professors would be if he applied for an Apprenticeship under one of them. But seeing as all the professors had students to teach and the fact that Harry didn't particularly like any of them, this was not an option for him.

Currently, Harry was on his way to Madam Hooch's office. Why she needed any office, seeing as all she did was referee quidditch matches and teach first years to fly, Harry didn't know. But he needed to turn in his permission form to try out for the quidditch team.

"Uh, Harry? The Great Hall is that way." Max had finally caught up to him and was pointing in the opposite direction they were headed.

"Yes but Madam Hooch's office is this way."

"Oh!" Max said excitedly "You're going to try out for the team then?"

Harry nodded.

"Sweat! I think Roger said he was trying out aswell." Max began to ramble on about who was on every house team and who he heard was trying out. Harry ignored him completely (Something he was finally getting rather good at) and continued to walk/read.

Finally they arrived at the door of the office he wished to be at, he knocked three times, hoping the occupant was inside.

The door opened to reveal Madam Hooch who upon realizing who had knocked grinned down at Harry knowingly and ushered him inside.

"Do I even need to ask what it is you are here for Mr. Potter?" she asked sarcastically

"I'm here to ask for permission to try out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team." he confirmed. She didn't seem surprised in the slightest, probably guessing he was going to try out when she saw him fly last year.

"Do you have a signed permission slip from your parent or guardian?" she asked, wincing slightly when she realized she brought up his deceased/hospitalized parents.

Hooch quickly read through the Quidditch application form, nodding at where Remus had signed before she fetched her wand and spelled the parchment away.

"Well, everything seems to be in order," she said with a smile, "The Ravenclaw tryouts are this Saturday at five o'clock, make sure you're there on time if you want to make an impression on Ellwood." she advised. Harry nodded in thanks and was about to leave before Hooch placed a hand on his shoulder to halt him for a moment.

"Do you mind me asking what position you're trying for Mr. Potter?" she asked, genuinely curious. Most of the young kids these days wanted all the glory and went for seeker.

"Chaser." was his firm and determined reply. Hooch grinned and nodded in approval.

"I'd wish you luck Mr. Potter, but I think you don't need luck." she said, still grinning, "Quidditch is in your blood, you're father was one of the best chasers Hogwarts had seen in centuries. I hope he passed his skill onto you, Slytherin has held the cup for far too long in my opinion." she said with a brief chuckle.

"Slytherin isn't the problem this year, Gryffindor is probably going to win the cup this year." Max supplied unhelpfully.

Hooch grinned again. "More like Weasley will win the cup, Mr. Boridius." she corrected as the two chuckled at their little joke.

"I'll try my best Madam." Harry said, dismissing himself and Max with a nod before leaving the office and heading towards the great hall for lunch.

As they were walking to the Great Hall for lunch, a question came to Max's mind. "Hey, you never did tell me what you did over break. When we came over to Marauders, all we talked about was school."

"I did a lot of studying." Harry answered vaguely

"You're even a book worm on the holidays," Max complained "are you telling me that's all you  
>did?"<p>

"I flew a little bit at my family's manor, but other than that not much."

"Well at least you did something fun, hey did you- oomph." Max ran into someone and fell flat on his bottom

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm always- oh hey Harry!" The pink-haired seventh year said brightly, now completely ignoring Max

"Nymphadora." Harry greeted with a nod as they paused in their trek towards the great hall.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Max grumbled as he got up from the floor.

"Ah yes, you two haven't met." Harry said "Maximus, this is Nymphadora. Nymphadora, this is Maximus."

Harry sidestepped the stinging hex the angry seventh year sent his way. "What have I told you about saying my name Potter!" she said angrily

"To not to."

"Then why do you insist on saying it?!"

"Because it annoys you and because you still need me as a sparring partner."

She sent another stinging hex his way, only to have it reflected at Maximus by a shield Harry skillfully conjured.

"Ahhh!" Max yelped as the hex hit his shoulder.

Her anger now forgotten Tonks started to profusely apologize to Max. "I'm so sorry! Are you hurt? I didn't mean to, it was Potter's fault. If he would just stop calling me my name."

"No worries," Max laughed as he rubbed his sore shoulder "He keeps calling me Maximus, call me Max."

"Call me Tonks." They shook hands "Are you two heading to lunch."

"Yeah we were just- Hey where did Harry go?" They just noticed their friend's disappearance

They looked both ways down the corridor, not seeing Harry.

"How did he sneak away? He was standing right next to us." Tonks wondered aloud

Max shrugged his shoulders. "Who cares about Harry, let's just go to lunch." They started walking to the Great Hall.

"So," Max said "is 'sparring partner' your code name for sex buddy?" he said jokingly but regretted it when the, now red faced, girl started throwing hexes of every sort in his direction. The sound of Max's yelps of pain echoed very prominently down the corridor.

They didn't notice the black cat sitting in the shadows. If cats could smirk, this one would be seeing as it was Harry Potter in his animagus form. He was trying to learn to change discretely, when no one was looking and he was getting quite good at it. Disappearing was a fun thing to do, but reappearing out of nowhere and scaring the living crap out of people was a lot more satisfying.

Harry quickly made his way to lunch and saw Max sitting next to Roger. Giving a mental smirk, he stealthily made his way next to the empty seat next to Max. He caught part of the conversation Max was having with Roger.

"-just went to Hooch's office to hand in his permission slip, you said you were trying out for the team too right?" Max asked Roger

"Yeah, I'm gonna try at least." Roger said "I still gotta hand in my permission form though, I'll probably go after Potions tomorrow. Hey where is Harry anyway?"

Max frowned at the mention of his 'supposed best friend', Tonk's hexs hurt even though it was entirely his own fault he got hexed in the first place. Max didn't care though, he'd blame Harry."I don't know, he was walking back here with me when he just disappeared. I swear, that dick better not make a habit of-"

"A habit of what, Maximus?" Harry asked from behind him

Max's body stiffened and slowly turned around to the smirking Harry who was lazily eating a turkey sandwich. "N-nothing, I-I was just telling Roger here about my, uhhh, haircut." He winced at his lame explanation.

Harry raised a questionable eyebrow then took another bite of his sandwich, relishing at the wonderful taste. "Yes, I suppose that it does make you look a bit like a dick. Carry on with your 'conversation'." Harry finished sarcastically then walked back to the common room, turkey sandwich in hand.

Max turned to Roger who was fighting not to start laughing. "You knew he was there the whole time!" Max accused

Roger shook his head, still trying fight the urge to laugh. "No, he just suddenly appeared. I swear, I blinked and he was there."

Max gave him a disbelieving stare and then sighed. "He's going to start doing this all the time just to torment me, isn't he."

"Most likely." Roger said happily

Max turned back to his food with a grimace, 'It's going to be a long year.' Max thought

* * *

><p>"You are all here because you think you're good enough to try out for the Quidditch team," the voice of Robert Ellwood, Ravenclaw Chaser and team captain called out to the dozen or so Quidditch hopefuls standing on the Quidditch pitch. "Only two of you are actually going to be on the team, so don't get your hopes up." His words made some those who were less confident shift nervously.<p>

"The two vacant positions on the team are for chasers, so those of you who are trying out for anything other than chaser go over to Worthington now." He pointed to the large boy finishing up on putting on the rest of his padds. "If he thinks you're good enough, we'll put you on our reserve team." Four of the people trying out moved over to Worthington

"I will be doing chaser tryouts, since I am the only chaser on the team left since Dickinson and Hutchins graduated." he said in a loud and clear voice, "If I think you're good enough to be on the team, then welcome aboard. But I'm going to warn you right now, when you're on this team you are fully committed. That means no missing practices unless you are in the hospital wing, you will give your full effort at every practice, and no excuses. I don't care if you have a shit-ton of homework, we are the house known for the wise and knowledgeable and what I mean by that is that is if you need help on homework ask an older student for help." He eyed them all scrutinizingly. "Any questions?"

Seeing that no one spoke up, he motioned them over to a box that held two dozen or so Quaffles and a pile "Comet Two Twenty's" provided by the school.

Once everyone had a room Ellwood started talking again, "The first drill we'll do is relatively simple, you'll fly up and receive a pass from Everteen," He motioned to the pretty girl who was taking the quaffles out of the box, "then you have a one on one against Jason up there." He pointed to the figure in front of the hoops. Everyone nodded their heads in affirmation before getting in a not-so orderly line in preparation of the drill. Harry was in the fifth in line, right behind Roger who looked slightly nervous. Harry kept his face calm and cool while he was waiting.

The first to be called was a fifth year girl Harry didn't recognize who launched off from her starting position on the whistle, caught the Quaffle with some difficulty and after a little fumble she shot the ball from about thirty yards on the mark, only narrowly missing the mark. The next three were much the same as the first with only one actually getting the quaffle somewhat accurate but was an easy save by Jason.

Roger was the next person to go and as soon as heard the whistle, he zoomed off at a speed much quicker than the other applicants. When the Quaffle was thrown at him, it was a little low and not very fast; to rectify the problem, he went into a sixty degree dive so he could catch the ball before shooting from thirty five yards up from his angle and narrowly missing the wide hoop. Harry was impressed and Ellwood seemed to be also, the shot totally had the keeper beat; he just needed to be more accurate.

Finally it was Harry's turn and as soon as he heard the whistle from Ellwood, he took off as fast as his broom would carry him. The pass was a bit short and would probably not make it past forty yards, Harry growled in annoyance and willed his broom to go faster.

Ellwood watched with a frown as the Quaffle was losing its altitude before it would hit its mark; he was about to lose interest, thinking that there was no way Potter could do anything about it. He was, however, shocked when the second year suddenly shot off like an arrow towards the quickly falling quaffle and snagged it with one hand bare feet away from hitting the ground. Harry did not decrease his speed as he shot towards the hoops.

Whenever Harry played football, he'd be the running back. His old coach was always commenting on his ability to deek-out his opponents, he wasn't that good at throwing though. He tried playing quarterback once and failed rather spectacularly when he somehow got the ball lodged in his teammates face mask.

Most chasers shot at about thirty to twenty yards away from the hoops, this made sure that their shots were accurate as well as powerful. Harry had thought about this when he decided to play chaser, he decided he was going to add a new spin to his strategy.

Everyone watched on confused as Harry headed full speed towards Jason, most thought he planned on ramming into him. But at the last second, Harry twisted his broom, making it do a 360 around Jason, and shot an easy ten yard shot through the middle hoop.

There was silence as Harry lowered himself to the ground until two students began to cheer wildly from the stands. Harry purposefully looked away from Tonks and Max who, he was sure, were deliberately trying to embarrass him with their idiocy, though he failed to hide a small smile that was plastered on his face due to the adrenaline rush of what he had just pulled.

The remaining trials for the Chaser try-outs were a passing test and a defending test where they simply had to throw as good a pass as possible to a randomly flying Ellwood and attempting to pull off interceptions from Ellwood and Worthington. Harry did better than he thought he would have on the passing drill and was able to give Ellwood a relatively good pass and he probably did the best when it came to intercepting. Harry got a seven out of ten passes made and made six interceptions while Roger had nine out of ten passes made along with four interceptions made.

"Well I think it's pretty obvious who I'm picking to be on the team. Potter, Davis welcome aboard." Ellwood announced to the tryout participants who all, minus Harry and Roger, nodded their heads in affirmation and left. None complained seeing as they were all clearly outmatched by the two second years

Ellwood turned to the two first years. "So have you two played an actual game before?" He asked

"I played at home with my older brothers, whenever they were home at least." Roger admitted with an embarrassed flush as Harry shook his head.

"No, but I've flew at my home and play soccer most of my life. The strategies are somewhat similar." Harry admitted

Ellwood grinned maniacally "Being a Chaser's in your blood Potter, my older brother told me about some of the matches he saw as a first year and said your father was the best chaser at Hogwarts. I'm sure you'll do the Blue and Bronze proud." He said excitedly "You too Roger, I'm expecting good things this year. Our biggest weakness last season was our lack of good chasers; we might actually stand a chance of winning the cup this season with Moran gone and Weasley having to carry his team of rookies."

"I take it we make the team then?" Harry unnecessarily asked with a drawl, feeling quite tired after practice and remembering he had to meet Tonks tonight for their sparring session.

"Of course Potter, of course," he said distractedly, eying the two before frowning. "We'll need a lot of practice before our first game though so we can work well together, do you two have brooms?"

Roger nodded, "I'm going to borrow my brother's Nimbus 1700; now that he has a job, he won't need it," he said with a smile.

Harry shrugged "I'll send my uncle a letter." Harry answered knowing Remus would take care of the whole thing

The captain nodded his head in acceptance before motioning them to follow him They were introduced to the Keeper, Jason Worthington, the seeker, Allison Spencer, the beaters Graham Polack and Amelia Everteen.

"The first training session is next Saturday at nine A.M. so wake up early and be on time. We'll have practice every other day at five after school along with a team strategy session on Thursdays. If it interferes with anything, I expect you to beg Flitwick for a pass so you can go. Got it?" He questioned, giving them an intense glare.

Roger gulped while Harry nodded back mutely.

On his way back to the castle, he was ambushed by an excited Max and Tonks who were congratulating him in earnest while acting like their stupid selves at the same time.

"Oh Harrinkins, I'm so proud of you!" Tonks gushed excitedly while she tried to squeeze the life out of Harry "And to think that you were only a first year a few months ago."

"Need I remind you, Nymphadora." Harry said as he, unsuccessfully tried to break her hold. "That this 'First Year' can beat the crap out of you in a duel."

"We'll see about that tonight Harry dear." She paid him back for using her name by giving him a noogie.

"Whoa, what are you and Harry doing tonight? Is it another one of your 'Sparring Sessions'?" a grinning Max asked sarcastically

Harry finally broke free of the seventh years hold as She turned red in the face at Max's comment.

"Shut up you little pervert, and to think that I actually kinda liked you for five minutes." She sent a hex at Max who barely managed to dodge it.

"Hey don't hurt me!" Max cried as he hid behind Harry "It's not my fault you're sleeping with my best friend."

"I'm not sleeping with Harry!" She yelled indignantly "And what ever happened to the kid who didn't know what a douche is?"

Max shrugged his shoulders behind the amused Harry "Harry gave me a book that explained this kind of stuff."

Tonks then turned to Harry questionably, wondering why he would ruin his friend's innocence so early. "I was tired of having to explain all my jokes and insults." Harry shrugged "I read that book when I was eight."

* * *

><p>Harry tiredly trudged into the Ravenclaw Common Room along with the rest of the equally tired Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. It had been three weeks since tryouts and Ellwood was coming down hard on them, especially Harry since he still has yet to get a broom. The letter Remus sent back to Harry, after Harry told him he made it onto the quidditch team, said that he'd get Harry his broom in a week. It's been three weeks and Harry was ready to go down to Knockturn Alley and kick Remus' ass if he didn't get him a broom soon.<p>

Harry collapsed onto the couch that Max was writing his Potions Essay on. The two sat in comfortable silence waiting for Max to finish his assignment.

"Hey Harry." Max said when he finished writing "Man, you look tired. Another 'Sparring Session' with Tonks then?" He jokes which earns him a rather impressive death glare from Harry

"Shut up you moron. I just spent the last two hours, hurling quaffles at a target fifty feet away with both my arms. Ellwood's bloody insane. He's not impressed with my throwing and passing capabilities and has deemed to rectify that. The rest of the time was spent dodging bludgers and team strategy sessions." Harry finished with a tired sigh, "Thank Merlin it's sunday tomorrow."

"Well I'm sure as hell glad I didn't try out, that's crazy." he sympathized, sitting down on the seat across from Harry after bagging his homework.

"You got any homework?" Max asked, wondering if his friend had time to finish it with his Quidditch training, personal studies which he kept to himself and 'sparring sessions' that are not codenames for sex of any kind.

"I just finish all my assignments in class or during history." he said with a yawn as he leaned back in the chair and propped his feet on the table, earning glares from the nearby group of fifth year girls who were simply ignored.

"During History? What do you do for notes?" asked a perplexed Max, "That exam was pretty hard last year and I take notes myself." he said with a frown.

Harry shrugged and yawned again, too tired to explain it to him, "I'll tell you another time, I'm just gonna take a little nap." he said between yawns as he drifted off.

Before he could succumb to the beautiful darkness he so craved however, he was quickly interrupted by Max who had slapped him across the face hard enough to annoy him.

"Blacky just flew in." indicated Max as he began to do his Transfiguration homework, which Harry usually helped him with anyway. It was funny how Harry could simplify the overly complicating McGonagall's explanations so he could understand the subject. And all he had to do in return was help him in Potions, something he liked to do anyway!

Seeing the owl he shared with Remus flying with a broom shaped package, Harry grinned when he noticed he had the Quidditch team's and most of the room's undivided attention, well, the owl did at least.

Opening the package, he pulled out a brand new broom that had a body of dark Irish oak with gold trimming. The butt of the broom had dozens upon dozens of neatly cut thin wooden twigs that resembled the broom's brush; each twig looked to be personally crafted and perfectly straight. On the tip of the broom was a golden plaque with the engraving of the broom's name: "Nimbus 2000".

Looking up to his captain, the boy seemed to be hyperventilating, much to his amusement while everyone else looked on in shock.

"That's a Nimbus two thousand!" gaped Ellwood in shock rushing over to Harry but not daring to touch the broom, while glaring at anyone who even dared to even think such a thing.

"This is the fastest broom on the market it just came out this week! I saw it advertised in 'Quidditch Monthly'!" He cooed, eying the broom with awe while never actually touching it, and to be honest, it was creeping Harry out a bit.

"That's it, I'm getting you a broom service kit." Ellwood said with conviction. "No way are you going to let this baby get treated bad, I'm going to make you service it every day!"

As the crowd dissipated, Max retook his seat, trying not to look impressed by the broom "So," he began "you going to let me have a ride on your broom?"

Harry just looked at him, no expression on his face while the group of girls that had glared at Harry earlier for resting his feet on the table stopped talking and began giggling at Max.

"I'm telling Shannon you're gay." Harry said, as he went up to his room so he could put his broom away safely. Harry had long ago figured out Max had a crush on Shannon, whether it was genuine or something he'd grow out of Harry didn't know. At first Max denied it, then Harry glared at him for a few minutes, he caved and admitted to liking his oldest friend.

It wasn't until five minutes later that he realized what he just said as he attempted to "save face" with the pretty girls that had overheard their conversation. He may like Shannon but pretty girls were pretty girls.

* * *

><p>Harry calmly sat at the Ravenclaw Table, eating breakfast with the rest of the team. Ellwood made them all get up bright and early in preparation for their game against Gryffindor today.<p>

They were the only students in the Great Hall, the only other people eating breakfast this early was Dumbledore and Flitwick. Dumbledore was wearing his usual robes with the animated shooting stars and planets on them. Flitwick seemed to be dressed to support his house if the blue and bronze attire were anything to go by.

Max plopped down next to Harry, the boy seemed to be the only student in the castle who liked to wake up early. He usually just spent that time reading in the common room, but decided that he'd accompany Harry to breakfast before his first game.

"So, you nervous?" Max asked as he grabbed some toast

"Not particularly, why should I be?" Harry said tiredly, he hated waking up early

Max looked at him strangely, "Well the whole school will be watching you so don't mess up, this is probably the biggest game you'll play this year, it's also the first game you'll play this year, I think those are pretty good reasons to be nervous."

Roger, who had overheard the conversation, turned slightly pale at hearing what Max was saying. Harry just brushed off the comments, knowing that if he paid them any heed it would probably screw up his game.

Harry probably would be nervous if it wasn't for the fact that he had played sports his entire life. He had had a 'first game' before any had been nervous then, but now he knew how to deal with it.

"Let's head to the locker rooms." Ellwood said as he glared at Max who had just made Roger even more nervous than he already was. Max was unaffected by the glare, being on the other side of some of Harry's death glares made others pale in comparison.

"Well guys," Ellwood said to the team after they had all suited up and gone over their strategy "I think we have no reason to be nervous." He eyed the slightly pale Roger whose cheeks reddened under his captains stare. "We have trained harder and longer than any of the other houses, we are more superior to all the other house teams in every way. All Gryffindor has is the elder Weasley, He'll be carrying his team of rookies throughout the entire game."

He eyed everyone in the room, "As long as we follow through with our planned strategies, there's no way we can lose. The training you've all been through in the last month should be more than enough to trounce our opponents today."

The entire team seemed to gain confidence at Ellwood's words, they all had expressions of determination on their faces.

"Now," Ellwood said, "What's our goal?"

"Victory!" They all shouted and then followed Ellwood out onto the pitch, ignoring all the cheers and jeers that were sent their way.

"And here comes the Ravenclaws! Headed by team captain Robert Ellwood!" Announced the Weasley Twins' Partner-in-Crime Lee Jordan who has taken up the post of commentator after the Jerome Smith, the regular commentator, graduated last year. He was being watched closely by McGonagall.

The Gryffindors were already positioned it their spots above the center of the pitch where Madame Hooch was standing with the chest of quidditch balls. The Ravenclaw team all mounted except for Ellwood who walked over to Madame Hooch and the Gryffindor's Captain Charlie Weasley, who had just dismounted from his broom next to her.

"Captains, shake hands." Hooch instructed, the captains did so and remounted their brooms.

"Now, I expect a good, clean game." she said, more as a formality, not really expecting anything more from the two teams.

She eyed the two teams one last time before releasing the bludgers and snitch, and then blew her whistle at the same time she threw the quaffle into the air.

"The quaffle is up, and immediately taken by new rookie chaser Angelina Johnson. What an excellent flyer that girl is and a rather attractive too."

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry professor." He apologised not sounding sorry in the slightest.

"She quickly flies down the middle of the pitch towards the Ravenclaw goal, she sends a sizzling pass to Jackson who takes the quaffle under his wing and advanced toward the veteran Ravenclaw keeper Worthington. Jackson passes it to Spinnet, and- No! Potter intercepts the pass and the Ravenclaw chasers are on the breakaway with Potter, Ravenclaw's rookie chaser flanked by Ellwood and Davis. Potter performs a barrel roll to avoid a well aimed bludger from Fred or George Weasley, can't really tell, and lays it off to Davis. Davis and Potter speed ahead of Ellwood. Davis makes to throw to Potter- wait! Ellwood takes the quaffle from Davis' hands at the top of the arc of his throw!" Lee announces excitedly seeing as none of them had seen this strategy before.

"Ellwood shoots an easy save right into Wood's hand- Wait! Potter intercepts the shot and shoots at the right hoop. Potter SCORES, making any easy ten yard goal after an excellent team move."

"Wow, that was awesome!" cheered Max in the midst of the other Ravenclaws who were cheering excitedly

"Wow! Harry and Roger are really good, it almost makes me scared to try out knowing that I'm gonna be playing against them." Cedric said from beside him, he decided he'd rather be with the claws, or more specifically Max, today rather than his own house. The boy's grey eyes were locked on the Quaffle and would occasionally look to each seeker.

"Hey, yeah, you said you wanted to play right?" Max recalled "Why didn't you try out this year?"

"The Hufflepuff Seeker is a seventh year and there are no reserves, so I figure I'll try out with everyone else next year when the spot's open," he said with a shrug. "My father told me he would be able to buy me a really good broom too by next year if I really wanted to play."

Max nodded his head in acknowledgement with a smile. The Diggory's, though an old pureblood family, were not exactly rich and racing brooms weren't exactly cheap either.

"There you are, I've been looking everywhere!" came a feminine voice from behind the two boys. Turning around, Max and Cedric were greeted with the sight of a flushed Shannon who looked like she had run up several dozen flights of stairs. She probably had if she was looking for Max.

"Hey Shay, you must not have looked very hard seeing as I have been sitting with my house the whole time."

"I asked that third year in your house, May Downon, where you were. She said you were sitting with Cedric, I was looking in the Hufflepuff stands."

"Ah, that makes a bit more sense. But I thought you didn't even like quidditch." Max yelled over the loud cheers as Roger scored another goal.

Shannon huffed in annoyance deliberately sat next to Cedric's left, opposite to Max. Max frowned when she didn't sit next to him. "It's not like I could do anything else, no one is even in the castle. And the rumors were that Harry is really good, so I came to see for myself."

"You don't know anything about Quidditch though," Max commented as the crowd erupted in cheers as Harry himself scored another goal. Cedric had his eyes glued on the game once again as Max and Shannon spoke.

"I don't," she said "but everyone seems to like it, and if I can see a stupid Gryffindor get pummeled by a psychotic ball, who am I to complain?"

Cedric chuckled, eyes still on the game. "Ouch, harsh."

Harry threw a deep pass down to Ellwood, and stopped survey his surroundings and catch his breath in the few moments he had now before the game started up again.

To most of those watching the game, it would seem like Ravenclaw was trouncing the Gryffindors soundly, seeing as the score was 160-20 in their favor. But it was only a matter of time before the elder Weasley caught the snitch. The plan was for the chasers to score as many points as possible before Charlie inevitably did the job he was famous for and their beaters were doing an admirable job at cutting him off. The problem was, he was adapting to them and would soon end the game if something wasn't done to stop him.

Harry received a pass from Roger but had to veer right as someone almost ran into him. It was Charlie Weasley and he had caught sight of the snitch.

Harry sped off towards him, quaffle in hand. He was the only member of the Ravens on this side of the field, so he couldn't just let Weasley just go about unattended.

Harry sped after him and quickly overtook his broom on his new Nimbus 2000. He had an idea and it just might work, he had to plan this perfectly or else he'd probably fail at stopping Charlie or be ejected from the game. Harry didn't stop to think about the pros and cons about either situation, he saw one way to stop Weasley and went for it.

Harry flew above Charlie and just as he had his arm stretched out to catch the snitch, Harry threw the quaffle high into the air before he swung his body around his broom as if he was doing uneven bars but still held on with his hands. As he was coming to the bottom of his arc, Harry made sure that his feet didn't touch Charlie, his foot did however lash out and kick the snitch away as if he were kicking a golf ball.

Charley cursed and immediately stopped to see what lost him the snitch, he looked up at Harry in shock. The redhead had no idea how Harry stopped the snitch, all he saw was something move in his view for a split second before the snitch was gone.

The crowd, seeing what had happened, cheered wildly, especially the Ravenclaw section. Lee was announcing excitedly about never hearing anything like what Harry just did happen anywhere.

Harry caught the quaffle as it came back down to him after he threw it almost straight up before doing his stunt. Harry's eyes followed Roger zoom towards now player free zone near the Gryffindor hoops. Harry saw the Gryffindor chasers flying furiously at him and knew he wouldn't be able to dodge all of them. So he cocked his arm back and with a large grunt (and a silent thank you to Ellwood for making him improve his passing and throwing) Harry released the quaffle.

The crowd almost became silent as the quaffle had to have easily covered one hundred and fifty feet at a breakneck speed, straight into Roger's waiting hands who easily, having been headed towards the far hoop while Wood was guarding the near hoop, put the Quaffle through for a goal.

"Amazing! Potter to not only cut Weasley's, the elder, chance at catching the snitch in a really cool way, but to pick out Davis from virtually the other side of the pitch. If this keeps up, not even Weasley catching the snitch will save Gryffindor, boy this is exciting!" Lee said losing his blatant support of Gryffindors for the moment.

Surprisingly, the game lasted longer than they would have thought, the Gryffindor chasers became vicious in their attempts to score but still wasn't enough to move them out of the danger zone. The score was 210 to 60 in Ravenclaw's favor, all they needed was one more goal and Ravenclaw would win even if Weasley caught the snitch.

Harry, however, saw something that made his stomach fall out from beneath him. Charlie Weasley, on the opposite end of the pitch, racing towards the snitch unopposed! Spencer was far too far away to stop him and so was any other player on the Ravenclaw team; even their beaters couldn't do anything as the bludgers were being controlled by the impressive Weasley twins teamwork.

"Ellwood! Weasley! Snitch!" Harry yelled at the top of his lungs. The captain whipped his head around, having heard the warning and cursed. The red haired seeker was within seconds of catching it. Deciding that there was only one chance left, Ellwood, with all his might, passed the quaffle to Harry who was closest to the Gryffindor hoops.

Harry scowled when he saw that the quaffle was coming in too low, Ellwood was at the other side of the pitch after all. In almost an instant, his mind analyzed the situation. If he were to fly low and intercept, not only would he give the opposing chasers time to track him down and stop him from taking a shot, but he would have to pause yet again to actually shoot. Acting on instinct, he shot down in a dive that would make any seeker proud to intercept the quaffle.

Harry knew he had to time this perfectly, else he miss. So as he grabbed the quaffle, he banked hard right and used the built up momentum his dive had caused to make his broom spin like a top. Harry released the quaffle at the top arc of, at least what he thought was, his third spin.

The quaffle traveled at blistering speeds, almost too fast for the eye to see. It flew almost straight as an arrow and hit the inside of the left hoop with enough force to vibrate to poll.

The stands were silent for a moment at the amazing stunt pulled before them until-

"AMAZING!" cheered the voice of Lee Jordan, his normal bias absent in his praise of the daredevil stunt. "Potter just pulled off one the most fantastic goals I have ever seen on the Quidditch pitch, and it seems it could have won them the game for WEASLEY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!"

The Gryffindors immediately voiced their approval at Charley Weasley's feat while the Gryffindor captain himself was gaping in shock at Harry. The rookie Ravenclaw chaser of the hour was watched by several hundred pairs of eyes as he quickly lowered himself to the ground and, somewhat dizzily, walked towards the changing rooms.

As soon as Harry vanished from view, the captains of the two opposing teams flew over to Madam Hooch to argue their cases.

"Madam, I know I caught the snitch before he scored!" Charlie said quickly "There's no way he could-"

"That's bollocks Weasley, and you know it! He beat you to the punch and this is clearly our game." Ellwood said heatedly

"Silence you two." Hooch hushed and then announced; "Goal to Ravenclaw, Gryffindor has caught the snitch, Ravenclaw wins!"

The cheers coming from the Ravenclaw stands seemed to be deafening, especially from Max and Cedric, and even to some extent, Shannon who could appreciate a good show.

* * *

><p>Ravenclaw had a large party in their common room that night that lasted into the early hours of the morning. Harry never showed up and stayed holed up in his room reading for the entire party much to his house mates disappointment, seeing as the party was practically being thrown for him.<p>

And thanks to his recent fame in the school, Harry now had (much to his annoyance) many fangirls and admirers. Max had tried to tease Harry about the fact that girls now had taken a deep interest in him

Harry was unaffected but extremely annoyed when the boy persisted for a week. Harry was getting to be get mad at all the girls who now 'wanted him', as Max put it. With Max's constant teasing and snide remarks he kept giving Harry, Max provided the perfect outlet to get rid of that anger.

Suffice to say, Harry broke out his inner Marauder that he usually kept locked up. The results were amusing to say the least. Max found himself swelling up like a balloon one breakfast morning and then floating up to the ceiling, and before the teacher could react and get him down he started to deflate by uncontrollable flatulence. Max was shooting all over the place like an actual balloon that has the air let out of it, the only difference was that he let off hot, smelly gas as he flew around in circles until he finally came to a stop on the Hufflepuff table. Harry gladly took credit for it and the weeks worth of detentions he got out of it weren't that bad.

No one at the school could even light a candle to him when it came to pranks. Not even the infamous Weasley Twins, who later found out that fact when Max enlisted them for a revenge prank against Harry. But all the Weasley twins managed to accomplish was proving that there is no way in hell anyone can prank Harry Potter. He always just seemed to know when someone was going to prank him. The Weasley twins and Max had, in their frustration, named his uncanny ability to thwart their schemes as "Harry's super duper, mega, ultimate, ultra cool Pranking sense". The name was still up for discussion at their next meeting.

Something that only served to frustrate the trio more was when they had asked him how he continued to evade being pranked, in the hopes of making their pranks all the more unavoidable, he had just replied that they needed more "skill points".

What the hell were skill points?

When they asked Harry, he had replied that to know what skill points were, they needed to acquire more skill points.

Suffice to say, they didn't have the required skill points and Harry was succeeding in diverting unwanted attention.

The entire prank war didn't go unnoticed by the House of Ravens, the entire house had last year sworn vengeance against the Potions Master for losing them their House Cup. They figured that they really couldn't get back at the 'Mega Douche' (as their house had taken to calling Snape) through pranks.

They asked for Harry's help to formulate the prank and Harry was only too happy to oblige. He honestly didn't care about the house cup that everyone else seemed to hold in such high esteem, but any chance he got to make Snivellus' life a living hell he'd take. Harry had even gotten Max to become his temporary partner in crime, the boy's potion knowledge would come in handy.

Harry first told his housemate's to never look the Potions Master in the eye lest he use Legilimency on them. They were all horrified at the thought of someone reading their thoughts, some even ran to the library to research the skill.

They planned on not going for the big public display prank, they decided to just make Snape's life a living hell. They also couldn't have any potion involved pranks, else their plans would be foiled quickly. They carved runes into their desks in class to make cauldrons tip over unless the runes were deactivated by someone who knew they were there. The resulting accident in the fourth year Gryffindor and Slytherin class made the Potions Lab uninhabitable along with causing Snape some acid burns.

They had managed to break into Snape's quarters, which surprisingly wasn't warded to high hell like they expected. They changed his shampoo (they were surprised he had any) with 'Gilderoy Lockhart's Maximum Volume Shampoo' guaranteed to keep the hair full and voluminous for a month. Not the best prank but they knew that Snape would hate it. They added itching powder to his bed sheets along with super glue in his toothpaste, superglue on the doorknob, timed stink bombs that would go off when the man was sleeping, along with a few other nasty surprises that would go off later in the month.

But that wasn't the Pièce de résistance, they simply wanted to annoy the living hell out of the man. So some of the more brilliant students banded together to create an indestructible, floating, metal ball that was charmed to follow their Potions Master around and insult him wherever he went. The insults varied from 'You're probably better at sex than anyone, now all you need is a partner.' to 'Did your parents ever ask you to run away from home?' Although, the most common insult was 'Mega Douche'.

The ball dodged all spells that were sent at it and could not be vanished or silenced. They also conveniently scheduled this in the week that Dumbledore would be gone for a week to attend to one of his many titles. If their headmaster was present, he could probably stop the ball with an easy sweep of his wand.

It was a fun for the Ravenclaw house, especially Harry who rarely broke out his inner Marauder.

Severus Snape was in for one hell of a week.

* * *

><p>"Holy Merlin, that was easy." Max exclaimed as they walked out of their charms classroom, "I mean, I know it's hard for some people. But if you retained even the slightest bit of information, you could pass."<p>

They'd just taken their last exam for the year and for once, Harry had to agree with Max. It was easy as hell.

"I'd have to agree with you there." Harry said, "It was only on what was covered in class and even then it was only the basic info."

"If our exams are like this for the rest of our Hogwarts career, I don't think I'll have to worry about OWLs and NEWTs."

Harry nodded his head, knowing that what Max said was probably true. But he didn't really care anymore, he was just glad the school year was over. Or it was more like he was glad that Ellwood's insane Quidditch practices were finally over. Although they did win the cup in a final showdown match against Gryffindor. It was much like their first game, Weasley caught the snitch and they won by scoring as much as they could.

Harry had accomplished a lot with his free time this year, nothing nearly as impressive as being an animagus but still impressive. He had finally gotten somewhat efficient in occlumency and could now hold his shield of memories under a direct legilimency attack. He'd gotten Tonks to cast the spell to help him practice in exchange for his occlumency notes and books. It was a pretty good exchange in his opinion.

Flitwick had given them forms to sign up for classes that were offered to third years. Harry had chosen Arithmancy and Ancient Runes since he already had a slight background in the two of them thanks to Remus and the fact that they would be the two most useful and challenging classes. Max had chosen Ancient Runes with Harry but instead of Arithmancy, he had chosen Care for Magical Creatures saying that it would help him incase he ever needed to harvest potions ingredients from some wild beast.

Max was going to get his Potions Mastery, there was no doubt about that. The boy held unnatural skill and knowledge when it came to that subject, Harry mused that he would probably become the youngest potions master in history. He never told Max his thoughts of course, wouldn't want to raise the boy's ego any.

Infact the only person that could match Max when it came to being the best at a certain subject was Harry. Harry was the best in Charms, Transfiguration, and DADA.

Their DADA teacher suffered a nervous break down and wouldn't be coming back next year. It seems that he has a fear of children, why he took the job to be a teacher at a school full of children Harry would never know. Maybe he wanted to try to get over his fear or something.

Now that their exams were done, Harry, Max, and Cedric, who has started to hang around Harry and Max more often, had all taken a well deserved week of rest. Even Harry, who promised to himself that he'd start studying again when he got back to Marauders.

"So Ravenclaw has pretty much got the House cup this year?" Cedric asked. They were walking around the school grounds trying to figure out something fun to do. Throwing rocks at the school's resident killer tree was the only thing they could think of at the moment. So here the three second years were, chucking rocks as hard as they could to try and hit the Whomping Willow's trunk. It was, surprisingly, pretty hard seeing as you had to get through the tree's defense of wildly flailing branches along with staying out of the branches striking range.

"Yeah, unless Snape somehow finds a way to dock fifty points from our house in under twenty-four hours." Harry said as his rock was hit out of the air by one of the tree's massive branches.

"He did that last year right?" Cedric aske while throwing another rock "He took points from you at the last minute so Slytherin could win."

"Yeah, but it's alright now. We got him back this year." Harry smirked as he thought of the many way he had made Snape's life hell.

"What do you mean?"

"He means, Cedric," Max said " is that we were responsible for 'Snape's Week of Hell' back in January."

Cedric gaped at them, "Y-You mean t-that all those pranks were from you guys?"

Harry shrugged and heaved another rock at the tree, "And a few of our housemates but yeah, mostly us."

Cedric stared at them for a few more second before he broke down laughing. "Oh that's perfect." Cedric said after he regained some of his sense, he was still snickering however "No one even thought that Ravenclaw was behind that. We must have lost at least one hundred and fifty points because he thought it was us." he said referring to his house

"That wasn't part of the plan but it did leave no competition for us." Max grinned "We got our revenge and a practically guaranteed House Cup."

Cedric gave a bark like laugh and went back to the rocks when he noticed they were all out, . "Max we're out of ammo!"

Max noticed the problem as well "No problem, we can just have Harry enlarge some of the pebbles. Right Ha-" He cut himself off when he realized that his friend, once again, mysteriously disappeared.

"Son of a bitch, he did it again!" Max said in frustration

Normally Cedric would frown at swearing, but ever since he had started to hang around Harry and Max, he had become accustomed to it. "Where did he go?"

Max's eyes searched for Harry, there were no good hiding places. Max sighed and said "We're not going to find him, come on let's go back for dinner."

"Seriously, where did he go?" Cedric said as the two of them walked off "He can't just disappear, we were standing right next to him."

"I wish I knew Cedric, I wish I knew."

The two didn't notice as a black cat walked out from under a knot in the Whomping Willow's roots.

* * *

><p>Harry stood beside a teary Nymphadora Tonks at Kings cross who had enveloped him in a bone crushing hug. Looking around awkwardly to see several people snickering or staring at him with jealous looks in their eyes, he softly pat her on the back and urged her to let go.<p>

"Oh, I'm going to miss you so much Harrikens!" she cooed through her tears as Remus and her parents watched with amusement.

"Good Luck with your Auror training Nymphadora, you'd better not suck after all the work I put into you." he said with a grin.

Max was about to comment on how Harry put other kinds of stuff into Tonks as well, but one death glare from Harry was enough to get the boy to shut up.

With a kiss on the cheek, She walked off after giving a nervous glance to Remus. She blush red when their eyes met for a second. Harry knew that Remus knew of the cradle-robber rule (half your age, plus seven), so he wasn't that worried of Remus doing anything with Tonks.

"Congrats on winning the House and Quidditch cup. I saw your last game, but you went up to your common room before I could get a hold of you. You know some of the people at Marauders have been commenting on your flying skills and some of the stunts you pulled." Remus said

Harry didn't respond to the compliment, he just nodded his head in thanks.

Bidding Max, Cedric, and Shannon a good summer, he headed home to Marauders - his second year of Hogwarts completed.

**AN/: Here's chapter number seven and I made it a long one. I know that some parts of this chapter will sound like ones form 'Knowledge is Power' but you have to understand that I needed a starting point in my story and that story offered one. Harry's third year is when I really plan on mixing things up so be ready for the upcoming chapters. I'm probably not going to be able to update much over the summer since my parents take away my computer, but I'll try to get at least one update in. I'll have to type it on my Ipad which takes forever mind you. You can all repay me by writing lots of reviews. The Remus/Tonks poll is still open, this chapter means nothing about their relationship. So far the vote is for no Tonks and Remus relationship. Oh and one more thing on this topic, if I cancel the relationship between the two Tonks will still be part of the story just a little less than she would be if she and Remus had a thing going. I've already got alternate relationships for the two of them. Anyway I guess this might be goodbye for a while, so see ya.**

**Ericlau99**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN/: Hey I'm back and I'm sorry I didn't update over the summer like I said I would. I was honestly too busy. I was a school every day for my job (Painting) or at cross country practice. Anyway this is the 8th chapter in my story and I hope you like it. Don't expect regular updates because I'm just writing when I can, maybe once every 1-3 months. Write lots of reviews, it'll make me happier.**

**I don't own any of the Harry potter world J.K. Rowling does. Oh and a lot of this story is based on Knowledge is power by Nkari127.**

Harry stood next to a rather large pond near his Ancestral Home (Potter Manor), the area that surrounded him was free of any trees but had a few unmoving dummies. Most of the dummies had charred gouge marks on their torso from the fire whip that protruded from the tip of Harry's wand.

Harry loved fire, he didn't know what it was about it that made him giddy with excitement. Maybe it was the stress relief that burning something to the ground presented. Maybe he just liked destroying stuff. Yeah that's probably it.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do that many dangerous spells like the one he was doing in his room. No matter how many fire retardant charms he put on his things, they still somehow managed to get burned. Remus refused to go out and buy another bed after Harry burned the last two. So Harry had to find another place to practice.

Luckily, he owned a rather expansive piece of land that he could practice on without burning anything important and without anyone knowing he was there. Remus didn't even know he was here.

Harry waved his wand in a fast slashing movement which caused the dummy to his left to be beheaded by the flaming whip. Deciding that he'd had enough practice with his whip, Harry gave his wand a counter clockwise spin with a sharp jab at the end. The flame whip ended but eight large basketball sized fireballs (that Remus would recognize) shot from the tip of his wand and decimated the rest of the dummies.

Harry gave a tired sigh and wiped the sweat off his brow. He'd been practicing using his entire fire arsenal (which was rather extensive) for the past three hours. He knew that practicing dueling spells as a third year would be frowned upon by pretty much all adults, but he liked fighting and he was pretty good at it. Sparring with Nymphadora, a girl five years older than him, had showed him that.

Harry noticed that the remaining bits of dummy were on fire, so taking out his wand again, he gave a long sweep motion in the direction of the pond. The results were immediate, a large wave formed from the pond and doused the burning dummy remains scattered around Harry. That's another upside to using fire spells, it caused you to be rather good at water spells as well.

Changing into the extra change of clothes he brought, he made his way back up to the manor to floo back to Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was rather crowded today was the first thing Harry noticed when he walked out of the Leaky Cauldron. It may have been just a few days before school but still, Harry had never seen it this crowded. Infact, it was so packed that he had to fight his way through the streets in order to get to Knockturn Alley.

"And just where have you been?" Remus said crossly as soon as Harry entered Marauders'.

"I told you, I was at the bookstore." Harry tried to move around Remus to get up to his room for a nice long nap but his progress was cut off by Remus' hand on his shoulder.

"For four hours? I don't think so, what were you really doing?"

"No really, I was at the bookstore. Did you see how crowded it was today? It took me an hour just to check out." He lied, his slightly burned bed sounded really good right now.

Remus still looked dubious but let it slide. Harry was glad he didn't ask to see the book since he didn't have one, a slight hole in his plan. It's not like he liked having to lie to Remus, he'd let Harry get away with most things but he always wanted to know where he was at any given time. Harry didn't know where this bit of overprotectiveness came from and didn't really care, Remus always let Harry do his own thing.

"Max and Shannon came here five minutes ago and are in your room right now." Remus said

Harry gave him a weird stare, "Why are they there?"

Remus shrugged, "Max asked if he could go in, why should I say no?"

"Because he's a moron and will probably break something."

"He's your friend, deal with it." Remus walked away

Harry sighed and started up the stairs to his room. Max had decided that he had not seen his 'Best Friend' Harry enough last summer and chose to rectify that this summer. He'd almost spent more time at Marauders' then he did at his home.

The constant visits from Max certainly cut down on his reading time, but what did it really matter? It wasn't like he wasn't incredibly far ahead of the rest of his year anyway.

Harry came up the stairs to his room, the pull-down ladder that had been the entrance to his room had been replaced with a short winding staircase. Harry kept the trapdoor though, else there wouldn't be any privacy. Unfortunately, the trap door didn't have a lock on it so people or annoying best friends could get in.

"Harry! What's up man? I haven't seen you since last week. Hey why is your bed burned. And why do you look so tired? Remus said you were at the bookstore, what did you buy? Did you hear about the Harpies game?" Max rambled happily in an annoying ADHD like fashion and causing Harry to wonder why he hung out with him.

Harry looked at Max who was laying comfortably on his burnt bed, he was playing with the football that Harry kept in his closet. Shannon was sitting at his desk, trying to make sense of the Advanced Transfiguration tome that had been lying open.

"What are you doing in my room?" Harry summoned the football and closed the book with a flick of his wand.

Max and shannon looked surprised at the magic, "We didn't want to stay in the main area, there was this creepy cloaked dude playing cards with Hagrid. Hagrid was drunk out of his mind and going on about dragons and stuff. It was rather frightening." Max said

"Well they're gone now so you can leave my room and go home." They made no move to leave, Harry wondered if Remus would be mad if he used magic on them. "Or we can stay here and talk about the upcoming school year."

Max didn't seem to hear the sarcasm in his voice and smiled happily before starting to talk. "Did you hear that Longbottom's coming to Hogwarts this year? That's why the Alley was so crowded today, he came to do his school shopping."

Harry levitated Max off his bed and onto the floor before sitting down in the vacant spot.

"I must have just missed him," Harry said "did he look like anything special?"

"No," Shannon said "he was rather chubby and seemed deathly afraid of his grandmother."

"Hmm some hero." Harry summoned one of his books from his bookcase and began to read.

"Could you please stop using magic?" Shannon said in a harsh whisper, "Are you trying to get expelled?!"

Harry shrugged carelessly behind his book, "Magic by my wand can't be detected by the ministry, the tracking charms must be applied while the wand is being made and since this wand predates the ministry, well you get the picture." Harry had gone back and asked Ollivander more about his wand and had learned part of the process of how wands are made.

"Well that's cool!" Max said excitedly "So you've been doing magic whenever you want, does Remus know?"

"Remus knows and doesn't care as long as I don't hurt myself or destroy stuff." He glanced at his charred bed, "Well his stuff anyway."

"Is that how you're so far ahead of everyone else?" Shannon asked, "Because you can practice in the summer, I mean."

Harry looked at her from atop his book "It sure plays a part in it. But even if I couldn't practice here, I'd just go to my family's manor that the Ministry doesn't even know exists."

"Well the only kind of magic I want to do doesn't even require a wand so I'm good there." Max said referring to his favored art of Potions.

"Speaking of you making potions," Shannon said "what was that big explosion last night that shook the house?"

Max gave her a sheepish smile, "I was, uhh... experimenting."

She raised an eyebrow, "Experimenting with what?"

Max mumbled something incoherent.

"I'm sorry what was that."

"I was, er, testing the stabilizing properties that human parts caused." He ducked his head in embarrassment.

Shannon looked revolted, "Live eyes, and arms, and fingers?!"

Max's eyes went wide, "No, no, no! I mean like fingernails, and hair, and..." He trailed off

"And what?"

"And urien." Max covered his face with his hands

Shannon took a few seconds to process the information.

"So you went wee wee in the cauldron?" She was fighting to hold back her laughter

He nodded, she broke down laughing.

"It's not funny!" He whined "That's what caused the explosion!" She laughed harder "It even torched what little hair I had growing down there."

He froze, realizing what he just said. She looked at him with a mixture of mirth and disgust, a really strange expression.

"Ew, too much information."

"Sorry." Max apologized, "I wasn't thinking and I-"

Max was cut off by Harry "ZzzzzzzZzzzzzzZzzzzz."

Max and Shannon both looked at the sleeping boy on the bed. His book was resting on his chest, partially open. One of his eyes was open, the other was closed.

"Eww that's gross, does he always sleep like that?" Shannon asked

Max, having shared a room with Harry for two years now, was used to his friends sleeping habits. "Yeah, when I asked him about it he said 'Rule number 11 Marauders are always aware'. I took it to mean that his pranking sense is aware even when he's unconscious."

* * *

><p>"Look it's him!"<p>

"Did you see his scar?!"

"How can he be a hero? He looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy."

"I heard he's really good at quidditch, maybe Gryffindor will finally win the cup this year."

"He's our Savior!"

"What's a 'Dow-boy'?"

King's Cross station was filled with reporters and students trying to crowd around Neville Longbottom to get their looks at the savior of the Wizarding world and vanquisher of Lord Voldemort. The boy in question was lavishing in the attention, smiling kindly at anyone who shook his hand and ignoring the questions thrown at him.

Harry, not wanting to get caught up in the crowd and not wanting to have to look for Remus in said crowd said his goodbyes at the barrier and boarded the train, his trunk packed safely in his pants pocket.

Arriving at the third cart from the front of the train, Harry picked the same compartment he had first met Max and Shannon in. It was easier locating your friends this way if you agreed to sit in a certain cart, for instead of having to look through the whole train, one could simply look through one cart.

Looking out the window as he situated himself, Harry watched with amusement as people flocked to the Longbottom heir as if by being in his presence, they would understand the secrets to the Dark Lord's demise. Walking alongside the boy, a hand on his shoulder as she led him through the throng of students and reporters alike was the Longbottom matriarch clothed in dark green robes, a fox fur scarf and a large formal hat topped with a stuffed vulture. The elderly woman made for a bizarre, if not intimidating, image with her cold and stony facial features.

Harry snapped out of his train of thought when he heard the compartment opening allowing Cedric Diggory entry.

"Hey Harry, had a good summer?" Harry nodded his head, he had seen Cedric over the summer when Cedric convinced his father, Amos Diggory, to allow him to visit Marauders. Amos was a bit jumpy through the whole visit, those working at the ministry seemed to still be a bit leery at the idea of a werewolf friendly business.

"Thanks for the seeker gloves you got me for my birthday too!" Cedric said excitedly "They'll come in handy when I try out this year."

The two lapsed into a one-sided conversation as Cedric related his summer activities and the progress of the Quidditch league while Harry listened and threw in his own comments when necessary until Max and Shannon arrived in the carriage.

Cedric caught up with Max and Shannon while Harry decided to read one of his many tomes.

Cedric left later on in the trip to go see the taranchula that one of the Hufflepuffs in their year told them Lee Jordan brought. Max and Shannon engaged in another game of wizard's chess and for once, it was a close game. Max (finally) seemed to be getting better. They were, unfortunately, interrupted in their game when a rather short, pale, aristocratic blonde boy barged into their cart and looked around, he gave a disappointed sigh then turned to them.

"Have any of you seen Neville Longbottom?" He looked down at them as if they were inferior, "I heard he was on this cart, have any of you seen him?" He said rudely

Harry, for the first time in an hour, looked up from his book. He looked at the snobbish blonde boy, then spied the two thuggish troll boys standing behind him. They were crossing their arms in an attempt to look tough and intimidate them, on a scale of 1-10 it ranked a -5 on the intimidation scale. Harry was actually chuckling on the inside in amusement.

When none of the third years answered the question, the blonde boy gave them all a glare before opening his mouth to talk again. "I said have any of you seen Longb-"

"Look over there!" Harry exclaimed before pointing at nothing behind the first years. And being the naive eleven year olds they are, they all quickly turned around to hopefully see something exciting.

Harry sent a weak banisher at the blonde moron's back, causing him to ram into his two cohorts. The three landed in an undignified heap outside the compartment door, where Harry closed and locked it with a quick charm.

Max and Shannon were laughing heartily at the three boy's stupidity while Harry simply smirked and went back to reading his book.

"Man that kid was a ponce." Max exclaimed

"Yeah wait-ago Harry!" Shannon said through her giggles.

Harry shrugged, "The kid was annoying me during my reading time."

"Were we ever that annoying as first years?" Max wondered aloud

"You were."

"And still are."

* * *

><p>The great hall grew silent as Neville Longbottom's name was called to be sorted. Unsurprisingly, however, the second the hat touched the confident boy's head, it boomed out the house of the Lions to the collection of staff and students listening with bated breath.<p>

There was a mere three seconds of silence following the proclamation until the hall erupted in cheers, mainly from the Gryffindor table who, as a whole, were ecstatic that they had received Longbottom.

After all the rest of the first years had been sorted, Dumbledore got up to make his usual start of the year adress.

"I know you must all be very hungry and wish to begin with the feast," he joked, eyes twinkling merrily as there was a collective groan in the hall, "but announcements must be made when you are most attentive; first of all, as usual, the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds to anyone not wishing to face the most severe punishments or death at the hands of those which lurk within," He gave a pause, and let his eyes drift over to the infamous pranking Weasley Twins sitting innocently at the Gryffindor Table.

"Mister Filch, our caretaker, has also asked me to remind you that no spells or feats of magic are to be performed between classes in the corridors. Also, those who wish to try out for their Quidditch House teams need to contact Madam Hooch before the second week of term to see about gaining permission to do so.

"Finally, I must stress that the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is strictly out of bounds to those who do not wish to die a very horrible and painful death." There were a few scattered laughs around the hall but the majority of the students had simply paled at the implications. Harry knew that most of the Gryffindors would take that as a challenge, it was almost like Dumbledore wanted the corridor to be disturbed. It was simple Reverse Therapy, tell someone not to press the big red button and then all they want to do is press the big red button.

Harry zoned out when Dumbledore introduced their new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, a man wearing a violet turban who looked to be scared of his own shadow, especially if the fact that he stuttered during every word was any sign of that.

Classes, Quidditch practice and individual study resumed as normal for Harry and Max, with the exception of their two new electives that they had taken up this year.

In his opinion, Ancient Runes was by far the most humorous yet interesting class he had at Hogwarts. He wasn't as adept at Runes like he was in Charms, Transfiguration and pretty much every other class to some extent, which served to give him some sort of challenge in his learning. Runes, taught by Professor Sinistra (the astronomy teacher), began in the early years with working on identifying ancient and difficult to translate runic languages, some examples of this were ancient Egyptian, Celtic, Atlantian, Aztec, and the list went on. Being quite the linguist himself, having mastered speaking in two non-English languages (French and Spanish) , he could appreciate and enjoy the effort involved in learning more.

As expected, Max was all over Sinistra in their classes. His eyes would remain glued to the gorgeous professor's impressive bust and shapely rear with a spaced out expression - he wasn't the only one either. It seemed to Harry like he was the only male in the class that actually took it to learn the subject instead of having free perv sessions. Of course, Sinistra hadn't exactly discouraged this behavior judging by the clothes she wore, one would think she lavished in the attention.

"I wish Shannon would wear something akin to that." Max said dreamily as he stared at their professor. It was at that moment that Harry heard Max blessing the muggles and their ingenious clothing inventions, as Sinistra had been wearing a rather open blouse along with a knee length skirt split down the side that when she bent over rode fairly high up, going as far to reveal the top of her pantyhose.

The action caused the males (minus Harry who was quickly scribbling down notes) in the class to sigh dreamily.

"I'll ask her for you." Harry said, quite annoyed with his friend's constant perverted mutterings and dreamy sighs.

"Uh- wait!" Max snapped out of his perverted daydream, "Please don't tell her, I'll... Uhhh, be your best friend!"

Harry gave him a look that told him to shut up.

His other elective, Arithmancy, proved to also be a challenge. Equations upon equations, algorithms upon algorithms, and studying upon studying were what was expected on a daily basis from Professor Vector in her class. The only other person taking the class with him that he knew on a personal level was Shannon, so he often paired up with her to do work. The class was by far one of the more complex branches of magic he had ever studied, and that was at simply third year level, he was comparing it to NEWT level Transfiguration!

Every class, they were expected to work through sheets of practice equations that involved some faux magical situation such as why a certain potion needed to be stirred a specific number of times, or why a wand needed to be twirled by this specific degree to achieve the desired effect. A master at the subject, she had told them, would find having a respectable career as a curse-breaker was a definite possibility, for Arithmancy and the ability to break down wards numerically was common practice and almost required to pull apart the most complex of wards.

Professor Vector was equally as beautiful if not more so than Sinistra, the only problem was that she gave off this... well Harry didn't know what it was but it was this feeling of a sort that says she'd hurt you if you even dare to look at her in a perverted way. Not that anyone would even take the class just to ogle her, it was that difficult.

For Shannon's second elective, she chose to take Muggle Studies. She was the eldest Foursythe child, even though not a male; it would be most likely that she would be in charge of the finances despite not being the heir. The Foursythe family dealt in both the Muggle and Magical world with their businesses, and thus, she would have to have a firm grasp of both worlds to be effective in such a venture.

The Ravenclaw Quidditch team had to hold another round of tryouts this year, this time to fill the position of seeker. Allison Spencer had broken her leg and her left arm over the summer, apparently she had fallen down the stairs and had not only broken her bones but shattered them. She had been hurt so bad that, even with magical aid, she walked with a limp and had pains plague her every now and then. Suffice to say, Ellwood had to replace her, and he did so with the second year Cho Chang. They also had to replace their keeper due to Worthington graduating last year and they did so with a fairly good fourth year. Their team may not have been as experienced as last year's but they weren't facing the likes of Charlie Weasley so it really didn't matter.

Speaking of Quidditch, in a bizarre turn of events that began with a verbal spar between Malfoy and Longbottom and ended with Longbottom rescuing someone's book bag from the lake, Longbottom had been named seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team - the youngest player in over a century. The rumor was that he was a good flyer, Harry wasn't deterred though; he knew that the Ravenclaw chasers were more than enough to win the game should he prove to be better than Chang.

The blonde tool from the train, whose name Harry later learned was Malfoy, had also proven to be quite the menace, well, as menacing as annoying little "firsties" could be with nothing but words to back them up. Harry conceded though that when the brat grew somewhat older and his family name inevitably gave him some form of political sway in the Slytherin house, Shannon wouldn't be so safe. She had her friends in the Slytherin house, no doubt, but not many of them would chose to fight Malfoy for her, they were superficial like that. Max had proposed to put the "scare" on Malfoy before that could happen, Harry pretended to agree but he had other plans to combat such a nuisance.

Speaking of nuisances, two particularly annoying, ginger, prank-loving twins had found out that 'Snape's Week of Hell' was Harry's doing. The two had, for some god forsaken reason, taken that as a challenge and were now trying to prank Harry almost nonstop. He'd foiled all of their pranks so far and had caught them (literally tying them up in a net and left them dangling from the ceiling) following him. His pranking senses were on high all the time now, but he didn't know how longer he could keep it up. The twins had actually spent time in the library and had learned a bunch of new spells to disguise their pranks. They were finally on their way to earn some skill points.

Now that they had become third years, the could visit the all wizarding village Hogsmeade. This could have been fun for Harry, being able to see more of the Wizarding World that he hadn't seen before, the only problem was Hogsmeade marked the beginning of "dates" as previously, had there been couples, being at school all year really offered no place to go on dates except for broom closets (not the most romantic of places).

Even last year, as a twelve year old second year, girls had been asking Harry out. He had rejected them all. But with Hogsmeade coming up, all the girls he had rejected seemed to forget about said rejection and ask him out again. He never accepted any, of course, opting to ignore them instead of dignifying them with a response, but that just proved to be detrimental, as they just tried harder to obtain his attention.

"So Hogsmeade, huh." Shannon said as she and Harry worked through their equation sheet in Arithmancy. Harry had to stifle down a groan, she was not seriously contemplating with he thought she was contemplating.

"What about Hogsmeade?" Harry said not looking up from his sheet.

"Well you know how people go and stuff." She said nervously, Harry actually felt some sympathy for her. Unlike the other girls, this one actually knew him and was probably asking him because she liked him. Regardless, he wouldn't do that to his best friend.

"I'm going to save you the effort and say no to your upcoming question." _'Damn, this equation is hard.' _Harry thought

"Wh- why not?" She sounded crushed

"Do you honestly have to ask?" Harry looked up from his paper to she her puzzled face

He gave her a surprised look. "You honestly don't know?"

"Don't know what?" She sounded frustrated

Harry wanted to laugh, she was really that blind. "Don't know that your oldest friend likes you."

She looked startled. "Max doesn't li-"

"Oh yes he does." Harry cut her off, "You haven't noticed that he spends most of the day staring at you? How he has trouble talking to you and blushes whenever he's in your presence? Are you really that blind?"

She looked at him angrily but the look quickly vanished as soon as she realized what Harry had said was true.

"Ok, I guess Max likes me." She conceded "But that still doesn't explain why you should say no. Is it because I'm not pretty enough, or do you like someone else, or..."

She kept on rambling off things she thought would make Harry say no to a date with her. Shannon was without a doubt, the prettiest girl in their year. And if he had be interested in just a girl with good looks, he most likely would have said yes. But Harry just wasn't going to date anyone unless he asked them out and not the other way around.

"... Or is it because you're, you know, gay?" She asked, he had denied every girl who had asked him (even some rather well developed and pretty fifth years). She thought she got the right answer when she saw Harry abruptly stop writing.

Harry slowly turned his head to face her. She was really dense enough to think that he wouldn't go out with her because he was gay. A wicked thought formed in Harry's mind, one that would 1. make it so that she never thought of him as gay again, 2. hopefully discourage any thoughts of her ever asking him out again, and (most importantly) 3. fuck with her mind.

He gave a quick look around to make sure no one was watching them. Before she could react, he quickly moved in close to her before putting a quick chaste kiss on the lips. It lasted for no more than two seconds before Harry moved back.

Shannon was so taken back that she couldn't think of any response. She just stared at Harry in shock as he went back to working on the problem.

"I don't want to date you simply because I don't want to and Max would try to kill me if I did. I like you as a friend and hope it stays that way." Harry looked up from his problem, "And I'm not gay."

She looked at him doubtfully, completely forgetting about the kiss for the moment.

"You still don't believe me." Harry asked her with disbelief, "What do I have to do, kiss Vector?"

She gave him another doubtful look, Harry smirked at her and got up and walked over to Professor Vector's desk where she was sitting.

He shocked her and the rest of the class when he kissed their professor just like he had Shannon (not that anyone saw that, she hoped).

Vector, like Shannon, was too shocked to even respond as one of her students kissed her. Harry broke the kiss after two seconds before pulling away and walking out of the classroom as the bell rang.

No one ever questioned his sexuality again and Harry Potter was forever known as a god amongst men, despite the fact that he had to serve a week's worth of detentions for the stunt he pulled.

Shannon tracked him down two days later and pulled him into an abandoned classroom before slapping him as he had 'Stolen away her first kiss', and telling him that she didn't have feelings for him either and to stay out of her personal business.

Harry was surprised it worked, it was something he had just thought up on the spot.

* * *

><p>All too soon, Halloween rolled around and the feast that accompanied it. Not feeling as "festive" as his friends, he had informed them that he would be in the library should they need him and would meet them later in the evening.<p>

Having completed all his homework assignments that he had been given for Potions, Runes and Arithmancy, Harry thought it time to head back to the dorms. By his watch, the other students should still be at the feast so he could kick back and read a book of his choosing when he got back to the dorms in complete silence.

Unfortunately, a book and silence were not meant to be as something had caught his attention. The corridor he was taking back from the library was long, dark and full of creaking suits of armor. This was not what had caught his attention however, it was the voice echoing through the hall.

_~Must keep watch for masssster, as he sssaid I should. Watch for nasssty non-sssspeaking humansss that go near Big-Nasssty-Three-Headed-Dogy.~_

Harry would recognized the hissing speaking anywhere, he quickly scanned the floor before spotting it.

"Accio."

A hissing serpent came flying at him.

_~What isss thisss!?~ _

Harry caught the snake behind the head so that it couldn't bite him. Despite this, it still wiggled furiously trying to get free.

_~Be calm!~ _Harry hissed and watched as the serpent fell limp in his hands.

Harry could speak parseltongue, he didn't know why he could but he could. He had discovered the ability when he was six. Remus had taken him to the zoo for his birthday and in the reptile-room, Harry had a ten minute conversation with a twelve foot long anaconda.

Ever since then, Harry had been studying this new ability that was rumoured to have been a dark ability. It wasn't dark in the slightest and actually had many perks. Parselmagic could build some of the strongest wards in existence, on par with blood wards. It also had incredible healing abilities, according to one of the texts he'd found, a trained parseltongue can put a decapitated head back on a body and reconnect it to bring the person back to life, even if head and body have been separated for a full minute.

Snakes had no choice but to obey him, something to do with the inherent magic of the language made snakes obey without question. Snakes, while being more intelligent than most animals, were still just that. Animals. And therefore thought like an animal, going by instinct before reason. Only a powerful magical serpent could hold a coherent conversation for very long.

Parseltongue is only hereditary in the Slytherin line, but otherwise the ability was completely random. It showed up randomly in people and there was possibly only one born (besides the Slytherin Line) every two hundred years.

The only reason Parseltongue was considered a dark ability was because a lot of England's past Dark Lords had had the ability. But say Harry go over to some place like India, the gift would be considered a blessing.

_~Wha- another ssspeaker! Massster said that he wasss the only one!~ _The snake hissed in shock.

Harry frowned, another Parselmouth in the school was something Harry wanted to know about._ ~Who isss thiss other ssspeaker you ssspeak of?~_

_~He say's he is my master.~_

Harry rolled his eyes, that was the problem with talking to snakes. Snakes, while being more intelligent than most animals, were still just that. Animals. And therefore thought like an animal, going by instinct before reason. Only a powerful magical serpent could hold a coherent conversation for very long.

_~Yesss but what doesss he look like?~ Harry hissed back_

The snake was quiet for a few moments before answering_ ~He has two eyes, a nose, two ears, two arms, and two legs.~_

Harry gave an annoyed sigh, this was pointless.

"Evanesco!" Harry said and vanished the snake, it wouldn't be good for the other Parselmouth to know that there was another snake speaker in the school. The snake had said something about watching the 'Big-Nasty-Three-Headed-Dogy.' Harry didn't know what that meant, his best guess was there was a large cerberus somewhere in the school. But Dumbledore wouldn't let something that dangerous near the students, right?

Whatever it was, Harry was determined to find out.

Harry walked out of the corridor without another glance. If he had stayed for a second longer, he would have seen two disillusionment charms drop to show the pale, scared faces of Fred and George Weasley who had seen Harry's entire confrontation with the snake.

* * *

><p>When Harry had gotten back the common room after he had talked with the snake, he had been surprised to find that the entire house was already back from the feast. Apparently, there had been a troll on the loose in the dungeons. The prefects had been freaking out when they realized Harry had not been at the feast and was somewhere wondering the school, one even fainted to Harry's amusement.<p>

Flitwick had returned twenty minutes later to tell them that the girl's bathroom on the second floor had been destroyed by the troll and that the troll had been surprisingly knocked out by Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley.

Harry had been immensely surprised, the two first years ate like trolls and looked like pudgy little doughboys. Harry very much doubted they could walk up four flights of stair much less defeat a troll.

Harry assumed that there would be many amusing stories, about how Longbottom vanquished the troll, floating around at breakfast the next. Unfortunately, it was not to be so.

Harry decided to sleep in for the weekend, catching up on some much needed sleep. Ellwood had decided to cancel practice for the weekend and Harry was looking forward to relaxing and maybe even having a little fun.

All plans of fun were immediately canceled though as soon as he walked into the great hall for breakfast.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at him, they all looked at him with fear. Those sitting closest to the door slid as far away from Harry as possible. There was a tense silence that was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Harry didn't know what the hell was going on but was tempted to yell 'BOO!', just to freak them out.

"You're a Parselmouth!" Someone yelled at the Gryffindor table.

Harry was surprised to hear that. Out of all the things he could have heard at breakfast, that was probably among the last things he'd expect to hear (he'd even be less surprised to hear Snape was moving to Minnesota to become a professional hockey player). Harry did his best kept his abilities secret, so it was a great surprise to him that this had gotten out. Someone must have followed him last night and saw him speak to the snake.

Harry spied the person who had shouted, Neville Longbottom. "And you're a moron, but I don't shout it to the world to hear."

The boy got all red in the face and couldn't come up with a comeback.

Harry sighed, Even if he denied it, there would still be rumors and better the rumors be true rather than false. Now that the cat was out of the bag, there was no use hiding his Parseltongue abilities now. The other Parselmouth would know about him too, another bad thing.

Harry looked around the Great Hall. McGonagall, Flitwick, and Dumbledore all looked like they wanted wanted to do something to stop all the students of falsely accusing Harry. Harry gave them a look that said, _'Let me handle this.' _They decided not to interfere with the prodigal third year and watched with interest. Harry saw Max looking at him with confusion/betrayal. Great, he'd have to explain this to him too. Oh, Happy Day!

"Now, who was it that spied on me last night?" Harry asked clearly, his voice echoing around the Great Hall. Most of the students still stared at him, still a bit shocked that he hadn't disputed the claim. But the rest glanced at the Weasley Twins who sat there looking guilty. Of course.

"You two," Harry pointed at the twins "Come with me, we're going to have a talk."

The two looked like they wanted to go anywhere but with Harry, but got up to follow anyway.

Harry flicked his wand at a napkin, transforming it into a paper airplane which zoomed over to where Max was sitting and landed on his plate. On the side it said _'Our room, ten minutes.' _Max gave an unsure look to Harry.

Harry gave one last look to the Great Hall before he left with 'Dumb' and 'Dumber'. Everyone was still staring at him.

Harry sneered at them, _~What are you looking at, foolsss!~ _He hissed threateningly, causing a most to jump in fright and a few to give a startled scream.

Harry led the twins into an abandoned classroom and sealed it with as many security charms he knew.

He perched himself on one one of the stacked chairs and gave the two nervous sweating boys a glare.

"Fred, George," He said calmly, "I have been getting rather sick of you two 'annoying' me these past two months. I have put up with your constant pranking for one reason and that is because you amuse me." the two refused to meet his eyes, as if he were some big scary teacher about to expel them.

"I am not a person you want to cross. I can assure you whatever you think you know about me, its not even close to what I really am," he said, sending shivers down the two boy's spines. "I care little for schoolyard squabbles and childish dreams, I care little for people's feelings when it comes to getting what I want, unless the person's feelings are mine, and would sooner ignore most people entirely then be forced to have conversations with them if they annoy me." He glared at them pointedly

"I am not amused that you two have been stalking me and sticking your noses into business that does not concern you. I don't care that most of the school will be scared or even outright hate me, I do care that people now know things about me that they aren't supposed to." Harry's voice was like ice, making the room seem colder than it was.

"H-Harry, it was a big-

"misunderstanding-"

"-It was an

accident." Harry hated it when they did that. Talking in turns. It got on his nerves.

"It was an accident that you told the entire school a secret that was not your's to tell?" Harry said angrily, "How did you accidentally do that?"

"Well we were-"

"Sho-"

"Don't talk in turns!" Harry cut them off angrily. They both flinched, Harry was rather scary when he was angry.

"Well we were shocked." Twin 1 (deemed Harry) said, "We weren't thinking and the common room was in a commotion because of the troll, and it just you know, slipped out."

"Yeah Harry, we didn't think and we're really sorry. We didn't mean for all this to happen." Twin 2 said

Neither of them could meet Harry's eyes, "Look at me." Harry commanded

Harry caught their eyes and used a talent that he had just recently learned he could do; Wandless Legilimency. It came from learning Occlumency, it was rather easy once one had an organized mind. Anyone can use Legilimency, but someone without Occlumency can only use Legilimency if they training say the spell with a wand. Using a wand gave you more power and allowed you to look deeper into a person's mind, but it also told the person what you were doing and allowed them to see what memories you were looking at. All Harry did was read their surface thoughts, it wasn't something he was good at yet, but he was experienced enough to know when someone was lying to him. Fred and George weren't lying.

There was a moment of silence before Harry spoke up, "I believe you." The twins sighed in relief.

"However," Harry said "if you ever get into my business, the consequences will not be pleasant." He ended with a hiss, reminding them of the parseltongue they had heard him speak.

They both nodded in understanding and watched as Harry swept from the room without a sound.

"Fred?"

'Yeah George?"

"He's one scary bloke."

"Agreed."

Harry walked up the winding stairs to his and Max's room. He was mad, he knew that. Two years ago, he probably would have pranked Fred and George to oblivion. But now, with his Occlumency training which allowed him to think clearly, he knew that senseless acts would get him nowhere.

He walked in his room and sat down on his bed opposite of Max's. Max sat on his bed staring at the ceiling with an unreadable expression on his face. Harry guessed that Max would be scared of him and Harry would have to explain what Parseltongue really was.

Neither spoke for a minute.

"Well?" Harry asked

"Well what?"

"Say what's on your mind."

Max closed his eyes, "I'm mad at you."

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, "Why?"

Max turned to face him, "I'm not mad that you're a Parselmouth, I'm mad that you didn't tell me about it."

Harry frowned at him, "That's my business, I didn't have to tell you. It doesn't involve you."

"The hell it does!" Max said in outrage, "You're my best friend, you can tell me stuff like this. I don't care that you're a parselmouth I just care that you didn't trust telling me."

"Like you're one to talk." Harry replied hotly, "You always avoid conversations about your family, you've never told me anything about them, and I've never asked. It was your business." As soon as Harry said it, he knew it had been a low blow.

Max lost all his anger, and his face became that of pain. He got up from his bed and started pacing. "Fine, you want to know about my family? My father was an asshole, he was most definitely a Death Eater and only escaped Azkaban through bribes. He was always going on about 'pureblood supremacy' and 'mudblood scum'. I grew up hearing about how he was going to get rid of mudbloods and werewolves and vampires. If I ever said anything in favor of them, I'd be beaten!" He almost screamed, Harry cringed feeling very sorry he'd brought up the topic. He quickly threw up some silencing charms so they wouldn't be overheard.

"The thing is, his beatings worked." Max said, "When I was five, I was just the way my father wanted me to be. Saying muggleborns should die, when I was five! Fuck, one of my first words had been mudblood." Max paused for a breath, "But my mother, I loved her, from what I remember, I loved her so much. She was the greatest mother one could hope for. She was always very proper, but because she was so young, she always had fun with me and would always be there for me whenever father would punish me, she'd sing me to sleep. She taught me right, but I didn't listen to her, I was too afraid of my father. She didn't believe in anything my father said. She was given to my father to marry, right out of school at 17. Some bullshit pureblood tradition or something." Max had tears start to leak from his eyes. "She loved me, no matter what I was like. She didn't care."

"One night," here Max's voice cracked but he continued regardless, "one night, when she was on an errand, she was attacked by a gang of werewolves, but before they could kill her, the Aurors arrived and saved her life. Fortunately or unfortunately, however which way you look at it, she survived, but she was turned. She got her injuries treated and was sent back home, none of us expected a thing."

"Things that large can never be kept a secret though, not for long." Here Max's fists balled and he got a look of hate in his eyes. "I discovered mother's secret when she snuck off to the manor's outhouse to change under the guise of silencing and obscuring charms. Being the fucker that I was, I told father." More tears started leaking from his eyes as he tried to control his emotions. "I told father that his wife had become the very thing he hated. FUCK! I was such an idiot! I thought that he'd find a way to reverse it, I didn't know that lycanthropy couldn't be reversed. I just wanted her to be fixed!"

"As you can imagine, my father wasn't too pleased that his wife had become a "half-breed monstrosity." He paused, collecting his thoughts before he continued, "While she was weak, he knocked her out and took her away, I had no idea where, but two days later my father took me to a room in the basement that I hadn't seen before and had just been recently created, I'd hazard a guess. The room had a door, a window and that was it. In the room was my mother, broken, beaten, tied up - I'll never forget how bad she looked. She was bleeding - down there, so I can only imagine that she was - several times." Tears flowed freely from his eyes, Harry felt awful for bring it up.

His voice continued to break up as he screwed his eyes shut, probably hoping to wish away the images. "He wasn't done with her though, my father," he spat the name with so much hate that it caught Harry of guard, "he told me that this is what happened to half-breed monstrosities like her."

Suddenly, Max planted his fist into the wall as hard as he could. Harry winced at the contact, those walls were solid stone, he definitely just broke something. "He killed her, the room was charmed to turn to silver after a certain time period, so after he let all his buddies have their ways with her however they so pleased, she would die as per the room's functions. I watched my mother burn to death and all she did was smile at me and say she loved me. She couldn't even say it, her vocal cords were too damaged, but she mouthed it and I understood. She was burning and all she did was tell me how much she loved me, no tears, just that smile. I'll never forget it."

Max paused and looked at Harry through his tear stained eyes, Harry remained silent through the whole ordeal, not trusting himself to speak.

"It's my fault my mother died, Father may have killed her, but it was my fault he found out. When I realized this, I don't remember what I did, the Foursythe's told me that they found me clutching a broom on the front lawn of their manor the morning after my mother died. I guess I flew there, I don't remember it well, I was five. Selean and my mother were good friends, it was lucky I showed up at their house. They said I was hysterical and wasn't making coherent sentences. But they got enough information out of me to know what happened."

Max wiped his tears away furiously as he composed himself. "Suffice to say Selean and Augie weren't too happy when they discovered what happened, but what could they do? My mother's body was burned in that room so there was no evidence and even if they had a trial, my father's influence would buy his way out of any trouble. They decided to keep me and let me live with them after that. Aguie has some good connections so my father had no chance of getting me back, though he only tried once and that wasn't very hard."

Max looked out the window, appearing to think hard. "I don't remember much for about a year after that, they took me to some Mind Healers and even a Muggle Therapist once. I got better, I still remember every detail of what happened that night. It's seared into my mind, I can't get rid of it and I don't want to either. I vowed to myself that I'd spend the rest of my life discovering a way for werewolves to live happier and easier lives, I gave up all that bullshit my father had put in my head. It's why I love Potions so much, therein lies the answer to all my problems. I intend to make a potion someday that will allow anybody inflicted with the Lycanthropy disease full control over their inner wolf and transformations."

Max was quiet, they both were for five maybe ten minutes, Harry wasn't sure.

"What was her name?" Harry said

"Wh-what?" Max wiped the tears from his eyes and blew his nose into his sleve.

"Your mother, what was her name?" Harry repeated

"Julia Isabel Boridius." Max said the name tearfully

Harry nodded his head, the two fell silent again.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about me being a Parselmouth." Harry said

Max gave a laugh, "Harry, I could honestly care less right now."

"I guess you deserve to know about my mother as well." Harry collected his thoughts "My story isn't as... dark," he admitted, "but I figure you have a right to know anyway." Harry continued, "During the end of the last war with Voldemort," Max shivered at the name, "my parents were attacked, not long after Voldemort fell at the Longbottom manor. The Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. came to my home to find information on their lost master. My parents fought and had beaten Crouch, when a killing curse was thrown at my mum. My dad flung himself in the way of her and saved her from death. My mum had taken out two of the three targets left after that, Rodolphus, and Rabastan. The last death eater left was Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix, she saw me hiding in the closet where my parents hid me. She shot a killing curse at me peeking through the crack in the door. But my mum, she threw herself in front of it to save me."

Max stared at him, "But I- I thought you mum was alive. In Mungo's-"

"She is, she survived. Longbottom wasn't the only one to survive it. The curse bounced back and killed Bellatrix. But mum, she has been in a coma for twelve years, not quite alive and not quite dead. No healer has been able to fix her. That should be me lying in Mungo's not her. She didn't deserve it. Every second I live my life is a second she should be living, happy, not stuck in some magical coma while being forced to live like a vegetable. I will cure my mother, it's the least I owe to her. It's why I study so hard. Every bit of knowledge I obtain makes me that much more powerful and every bit of power I obtain will help me in curing her."

"You were three then? How can you remember that?" Max asked, realizing he and Harry had a lot more in common than they realized.

Harry gave a hard laugh, "Like you, that night is seared into my mind and I don't want to lose it either."

Max smiled at Harry before his eyes turned cold and uncaring. "I intend to kill my father. He will be begging for death before I'll be merciful enough to finally grant it."  
>Harry nodded yet didn't comment, what could he say? He completely agreed with his friend, though he honestly thought death was too good for the senior Boridius.<p>

Max gave a sad smile to Harry, one which Harry returned. The two sat in silence, a new level of respect and depth added to their friendship

"So, are there any other secrets you've been keeping from me?" Max said half joking

Harry thought for a second before smirking and transforming into his cat animagus form. Max sat there gaping at him for a full minute before fainting, and Harry, being the amazing friend that he was, coughed a fur ball on Max's forehead.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:/ here's the ninth chapter in my story.**

As it turned out, the whole school learning that he could speak Parseltongue wasn't such a bad thing. Almost everyone seemed to leave him alone now! If Harry had known that would happen, he'd have let everyone know he was a Parselmouth sooner.

The downside was that it had made girls start to ask him out even more. Something about having an ability that was supposedly 'Dark' seemed to enhance his 'bad-boy' image that Harry had not been aware existed before. He even had the same girl ask him out three times in one day. It was an extremely creepy fourth year named Allison Brachman who had apparently claimed Harry as 'Her's'. She was the first thing that Harry was actually afraid of since he was four, his own personal stalker. Oh hooray.

Harry was sure that the rumors would have been worse if it hadn't been for Fred and George. They seem to have made it their duty to make sure that no one slandered Harry's name. Even going so far as to stick their youngest brother to the ceiling when he called Harry 'You-Know-Who Reincarnate'. Harry found it rather funny that no one in the school could say Voldemort's name, he'd been urging Max to do it for ages. But still, no luck.

After Max had woken up from his shock of seeing Harry's animagus form (and cleaning the hairball off his face), there had been a whole new game of twenty questions. When, how, and why Harry learned it. And to Harry's disappointment, Max guessed that this was how Harry disappeared all the time. He'd just have to find a new way to sneak around.

Other than his first encounter with the snake, Harry had found no new news on the other Parselmouth. It seemed that knowing another person could hear his snake-spies made him stop using them.

As it turns out, there was a 'Big-Three-Headed-Dogy' in the school. On the forbidden third floor, Harry had found a rather large cerberus guarding a trapdoor while wandering the school in his cat form. Whatever is under the trapdoor is what the other Parselmouth either wants to obtain or wants to protect. Harry didn't want to get past the cerberus for a few reasons. 1. Cerberus' are very powerful magical creatures and the only way to get past one, other than overpowering it, that Harry knew of was to play music. Harry wasn't good at any kind of music. 2. It would alert the other parselmouth that Harry knew what he was up to. And 3. the professors would most likely punish him badly, which would be annoying.

The professors were the ones who were guarding whatever was under the cerberus, so Harry doubted it was anything bad. But you never did know with Dumbledore. While the other teachers might be sane, their Headmaster most likely wasn't.

Longbottom, as it turned out, wasn't very good at quidditch. His broom started to fly/jerk violently (well, more than before anyway) at the first quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin that Max dragged him to. It was rather funny when Harry saw how Longbottom caught the snitch, he couldn't hold onto the bucking broom anymore and fell off, then accidentally ate the snitch on the way down. What were the odds of that! Another thing that made the game a good one was when Harry saw that new first year Gryffindor, Hermy Gingy or something like that, light Snape's robes on fire. They all had a good laugh about that.

Speaking of Longbottom, Harry had found out that the boy had an invisibility cloak. On one of Harry's many night time excursions to explore the castle in his feline form, he'd ran across Neville. The only problem was that he couldn't see him, only smell and hear the first year's loud footsteps.

Which led to Harry following him out of mere curiosity and boredom. He was led to a room with a tall, gold framed mirror. Neville Longbottom's head floated in mid air while peering into the mirror intently. Was the boy's ego and self-worth so high that he would be so enthralled by his own reflection?

Fully entering the room, Harry was about to get a closer look in the mirror when his enhanced cat senses picked up another presence heading towards the room. As quickly and silently as possible, Harry ran to the opposite side of the room and hid in a shadowed corner, his pitch black fur and small body making him almost impossible to see unless you were staring right at him and were only a few feet away.

Somebody had indeed entered the room, and if the horrendously colored wardrobe didn't give his identity away, his long silver beard and gold rimmed spectacles did. Albus Dumbledore snuck in without obtaining the "Boy-Who-Lived's attention and sat at the desk beside the door, watching the first year boy stare at the mirrored with a sense of wonder with a concerned frown on his face.

"Back again, Neville?" he asked gently, causing said boy to jump in fright and spin around to see the aged headmaster smiling at him.

"I - I didn't hear you come in sir," the boy stammered nervously.

"Strange how short sighted being invisible can make you," Dumbledore joked while getting up from the desk and taking a seat beside Neville on the floor before the mirror. "So, you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the wonders of the Mirror of Erised," he stated, and it was then that Harry spotted an inscription on the mirror itself, realizing that it might not just be a regular mirror:

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

Harry stared at the weird message intently, wondering if it was in some foreign language until he realized the first word spelled desire backwards. Thinking it may be a riddle, Harry read the message backwards, or mirrored, as it were, while ignoring the breaks:

I show not your face but your hearts desire

That made Harry stop and think. This mirror didn't show your reflection, it showed what you wanted most. Now Harry couldn't really blame Longbottom for being so enthralled by the mirror, it would be like an addiction.

"I - I didn't know it was called that sir," Neville responded after several moments of silence.

"But I expect you've realized by now what exactly it does?" Dumbledore prompted,  
>seemingly deflating when the boy answered in the negative.<p>

"I-It shows me being cheered by lots of people, even my Gran." The nervous boy said, "It, er, shows me being a quidditch star and famous." He ended blushing, Harry was surprised to see that their Headmaster was slightly disappointed at Neville's apparent desire. Harry couldn't see why, being famous would be a normal eleven year old's wish even for the Boy-Who-Lived.

"And it shows your friend Ron saw himself as the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and Head Boy, holding up the Quidditch Cup." Dumbledore said, Harry was surprised to see that he was slightly disappointed at Neville's apparent desire, he couldn't see why however, being famous would be a normal eleven year old's wish even for the Boy-Who-Lived.

"H-How did you-" Neville stuttered

"I do not need a cloak to become invisible Neville." He stole a glance at the mirror before turning back to the boy. "Now, can you tell me what you think it shows us all?"

Neville thought for a second before answering, "It shows us what we want, whatever we want." he answered uncertainly.

Dumbledore gave him that twinkling gaze he was so famous for, "Yes, and no. Here let me give you a hint, the happiest man on earth would look into the mirror and only see himself, as he is, does that help?"

"So it shows us what we want most?" Neville guessed

"Exactly Neville, exactly." He smiled happily at the boy for finally getting the question right, "You, who want nothing more than to please others who have high expectations of you, see yourself not only meeting their expectations, but exceeding them."

'Or' Harry thought, 'The boy was an attention seeking little brat.'

"Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone and the best of them all. However, this mirror neither shows us knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they've seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what they see is even real or possible."

Neville looked at the mirror in a new light as Dumbledore paused to let the information sink in. "The mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow and I ask that you not go looking for it again. If by some chance you do come across it though, you will now be prepared. Now before you use that impressive cloak of your father's to head off to bed, I shall impart on you one last piece of advice. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."

"Sir, can I ask you one quick question?" Neville asked, as he stood up and adjusted his cloak around him.

"You already have, but I can allow just one more if you must," he said with a smile.

Neville smiled back before asking, "What is it you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."

Neville just stared at him incredulously but Harry didn't believe the venerable headmaster for a second. Their Headmaster wasn't that crazy... right?

"One can never have enough pairs of socks," he defended himself. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair, people always insist on giving me books. I have read enough books for one lifetime." He said with a sigh, "Although, candy wouldn't be such a bad gift either." He added as an afterthought

Dazed by the slightly unexpected answer, Neville left the room and closed the door behind him with a soft click and heavy groan. Harry and Dumbledore stood in the room together in silence, both knowing that Dumbledore knew of Harry's presence.

"You know Mr. Potter, your father was one of the most talented students this school has ever had. But even he did not achieve an animagus form until he was in his fifth year. A feat of magic not even I, a master of the art of Transfiguration, had been able to achieve."

Harry's cat form came out of the shadows as he gradually changed back into his human form, clad in a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and a hoodie.

Dumbledore turned to face him fully, "And yet here you are, having achieved an animagus form by the end of your first year I believe. Truly amazing."

"Yes, I've been told. How long have you known?" Harry asked

"Oh I have recently only found out, the beginning of this year infact. But Minerva knew from the very beginning." He smiled at Harry with those twinkling eyes.

"Huh, should have known I couldn't keep it from another cat animagus." Harry muttered to himself, "I trust you can keep such information to yourself then?" Harry asks earning a chuckle from Dumbledore.

"I seem to have forgotten how it is you came into this room, Mr. Potter. It must finally be the old age catching up to me." He jokes, earning a nod of gratitude from Harry.

Harry, ever the curious, spared a glance at the mirror and what he saw almost caused him to yelp in surprise. There was his mother, smiling with happiness and glowing with health. Her eyes were twinkling more than Dumbledore's as she wrapped her arms around Harry's shoulders in motherly fashion. Mirror Harry looked happier than he'd ever seen himself, leaning into his mother's embrace.

But that's when it hit Harry, this mirror was a lie. It wasn't real life. He remembered what Dumbledore had said not even a moment ago, men have wasted away before this mirror not knowing if what they see is even real or possible. This mirror was showing something that could yet couldn't be. His mother could be happy again, but not yet. Harry had to cure her first.

This mirror was mocking him, showing him what he wanted most was within his grasp, yet still so far away. Harry didn't even know where to start when it came to try to curing his mother, some of the best healers had tried and failed to cure her. So who was Harry to try? Harry wanted to blast this mirror into a million pieces, it was giving him a dream that couldn't be real despite how much Harry wanted it to.

He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts. "What do you see?" Dumbledore asked gently. Harry shook his head to clear them of the dark thoughts before clearing his mind. Harry looked away from the Headmaster and mirror, staring at the opposite wall for a few seconds before answering.

"I see my task." Harry answered simply, giving Dumbledore no indication of what he really saw.

Dumbledore regarded Harry thoughtfully. That was a most unexpected answer, especially from a third year. Harry turned around and looked back into the mirror. When Dumbledore saw the hurt in the boy's expression, he almost desperately wanted to know what it was Harry saw so he could help him. But Harry made it obvious that he wasn't going to tell, he wanted to face his 'task' alone.

"I shall give you the same warning that I gave Neville, it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. The mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow and I must ask that you don't go looking for it again." Dumbledore warned and was surprised to see that the expression on Harry's face went from hurt, to determination.

"Headmaster, you don't need to worry about me looking for this damn mirror." Harry said coldly, "Because if I ever see it again, all that will be left is a pile of broken glass." Harry walked out of the room, changing into his animagus as he went back to Ravenclaw Tower.

"What an interesting young man, wouldn't you say Ariana, Gellert?" a young girl, fourteen or so years of age with a heart shaped face and large crystal blue eyes nodded at him with a large smile, while a young man, looking around eighteen or so, with blond, curly, shoulder length hair with an overall mischievous look about him grinned at him with a gleeful expression, the boy had his arm wrapped around the girl's shoulder in a show of brotherly affection.

With a sigh, Dumbledore covered the mirror with a conjured piece of cloth and began to relocate it, trying his hardest to banish the latest image he had seen from his mind. It would not do to dwell on the past, after all.

* * *

><p>Voldemort was extremely frustrated. No, forget that, he was beyond frustrated. Ever since the Dark Lord had found out that that imbecile Dumbledore had hidden the Philosopher's Stone in Hogwarts, well Voldemort just had to get it.<p>

Ever since the killing curse backfired on that fateful night on Halloween eleven years ago, Voldemort had become a wraith. Not quite alive but not dead either, he was more than a ghost but less than any creature with a body. And that's what he wanted most. A body.

It's why he was here in Hogwarts, acting as a parasitic spirit attached to the back of this idiot Quirrell's head. The Philosopher's Stone would be one of the few ways to get a body back. It would also be the safest path along with being the most effective path.

It had taken him months, almost the whole school year, to learn of all the protections guarding the stone, but he'd finally done it. The harp was softly lulling the cerberus to sleep, the devil's snare was pathetically easy to get past, he used an advanced summoning charm to summon the flying key to him, the chess set was no issue, Quirrell had a 'special' way to deal with trolls easily, and Snape's potions riddle was solved in less than twenty-five seconds. But now the Dark Lord was stuck.

It was this great bloody mirror that confused him. It was tall with a gold frame and had an inscription on the top, Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi, that he could not decipher. What the hell was he supposed to do with it? A mirror's only purpose was to see one's reflection. So how did the mirror hide the stone? Quirrell saw himself holding the stone but that's all. He'd tried dozens of spells, but none of them got him any closer to solving the mirror.

This must have been the protection that Dumbledore had put up, no one else could come up with something so frustrating.

Quirrell/Voldemort was broken from his internal monolog by the sound of footsteps. He looked in the reflection to see Longbottom had came after him. Good, he could use the boy to solve this mirror. Or maybe he should kill the boy now and be done with it. No, the boy had far better uses to him, alive.

"You?" Neville exclaimed in shock

Quirrell smirked at the dim witted boy, "Yes, me."

"B-But Snape, he cursed my broom. He tried to kill me."

"No you idiot boy, I tried to kill you. And I would have succeeded too, if his robes would not have caught fire and blocked my view. Even with Snape muttering his little counter curse." The boy only gaped at him, still unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Although, I guess Snape does seem like the type. But who would ever suspect p-poor st-stuttering pr-professor Qu-uirrle?" He said in mockingly

"So, you let the troll in?" Neville asked

Quirrell sneered at him, "Of course I did, now can you please shut up and let me get back to work?"

Turning back to the mirror, Quirrell spoke; "I see what I desire, but how do I get it." He almost yelled in frustration as his mirror self gave him a quere grin.

"Use the boy!" Voldemort's voice rang out in the chamber

"Who was that? There's no one else here, we're alone!" Neville said almost to himself, trying to convince his mind that everything would be alright.

"Foolish boy," Quirrell spat, "I am never alone, never." He sounded depressed at the last part.

"I said, use the boy!"

Quirrel turned to Longbottom, "Come here Longbottom, now!" He commanded

Neville slowly walked towards the mirror and looked into it.

"Tell me what you see." Quirrell commanded

"I-I, see myself playing professional quidditch. I'm surrounded by people congratulating me." Neville said entranced by the image

"He lies!" Voldemort hissed

"I am not!" the first year said indignantly, his attention breaking from the mirror.

"Tell the truth!" Quirrell commanded

"I did!" Neville's high voice squeaked through the chamber

"Let me speak to him." Voldemort hissed to Quirrell

"But master, you are not strong enough." The soon to be ex-professor said worriedly

"I am strong enough for this."

Neville watched as Quirrell slowly unraveled his purple turban, the turban was rather large so it could take a while. The first year was shocked that it had been Quirrell this whole time who wanted the stone. Quirrell must have been one of the best actors out there to have been able to fool Dumbledore. Quirrell was only about halfway done unraveling the turban.

Quirrell had (finally) gotten down to the last layer of the turban and slowly removed it, and what Neville saw would haunt him for ages. A warped and deformed face was lodged into the back of Quirrell's head. Neville could only see the reflection of it in the mirror, but was still rather horrified at what he was seeing.

Red eyes regarded the boy. This had been the first time he'd seen him in ten years, when he had been defeated. "Neville, we finally meet once again." The face hissed

"W-Who are you?" Neville asked in horror

"Me? You don't remember me, we met ten years ago on that fateful Halloween night." Voldemort hissed

"You-Know-Who!" Neville said in shock/fear.

Voldemort sneered at him, "Ahhh, the savior of the wizarding world can't even say my name, it's good to be feared even after all these years." Voldemort said mockingly, "You see what I have become? Nothing more than a parasitic spirit, unable to die but unable to live. It's why I need the stone, to live again."

"I-I won't let you!" Neville said bravely even though it was exactly the opposite to what he was feeling.

Voldemort gave a dark chuckle, "How could you face me when you can't even say my name?"

Neville looked down in shame, causing Voldemort to give another dark laugh.

"He might not know your true name, Tom. But I do."

The voice caused both the first year and the Dark Lord - Bald Professor hybrid to turn to the large entrance of the room. There, in all of his twinkly eyed goodness, was Dumbledore.  
>Neville gave a sigh of relief, he was saved!<p>

"Dumbledore!" Voldemort spat causing spittle to fly from his mouth and hit the mirror. Quirrell raised his wand in preparation for a fight.

The Headmaster gave a slight smile, "Hello Tom, I can't say that it's nice to see you either."

"You dare call me that name!"

"It is what I have always called you, Tom. And I don't think that will change." Dumbledore smiled at him, causing the Dark Lord's nose to flair.

"What is it you hoped to achieve by coming after the stone?" Dumbledore slowly advance towards Quirrelmort, "That even if you somehow managed to get the stone and escape from Hogwarts, you would figure out how the stone works as well?" The Headmaster childed, "I have been friends with Nicolas for along time, and he hasn't told me how it works. All he said was that only the maker could activate it." Dumbledore, still at a snail's pace, advanced forward.

Voldemort's nose flared again, "I would have figured it out, I have done feats of magic that not even you could fathom. I have escaped death, I am immortal!" He yelled making Neville cringe.

Dumbledore gave a sad smile toward his former brilliant student, "Ah, Tom. Man isn't meant to live forever, even Nicolas knows this."

"I am no man, the feats I have done would rival those of gods. I have do-"

Faster than the eye could see, Dumbledore whipped his wand out and sent a stream of silent, white lightning at the surprised Quirrellmort whose hastily conjured barrier did nothing to stop the arching magic. The Dark Lord/Professor was blasted back into the mirror, causing it so shatter and tip over. A black smokey substance came out of Quirrell's body, it formed into Voldemort's face and fled screaming in revenge.

Neville, who had dove out of the way to avoid falling glass, slowly got up and looked down at the charred and cut body of his former professor. After a few seconds of staring at the dead body, he promptly threw up.

"Are you alright my boy?" Dumbledore asked worriedly

"Yeah Professor," Neville said, grimacing at the taste of vomit. "I'm alright."

The headmaster gave him a warm smile and pulled a yellow wrapped candy from his robes, "Lemon drop?" He offered, Neville quickly took it and sighed in relief as the candy's flavor washed over his mouth.

"It was very brave of you to come down here, Neville. But it was also very foolish, next time you plan on doing something dangerous, please inform me before you do so."

Neville looked down in embarrassment, "Sir, can I ask you a question?" still not meeting the Professor's eyes

"It's 'May I ask you a question?' and yes you may."

"How come Voldemort couldn't get the stone out of the mirror?" Neville asked

Dumbledore's eyes turned on to full twinkle power before answering, "It was one of my rather more brilliant ideas. You see, only those that wanted to find the stone, find it but not use it, could get it."

Neville finally looked up from his interesting shoes, and into the Headmaster's eyes. "But sir, I looked into the mirror and I swear that I didn't want the stone but I didn't get it."

The Headmaster looked at Neville thoughtfully, "What did you see in the mirror Neville?"

"The same thing as last time, Sir. I was a quidditch star and everyone was cheering for me..." He trailed off and blushed red.

"So you did not see yourself holding the stone?"

Neville shook his head no.

"Interesting." The aged wizard murmured

"I'm sorry sir, but what's interesting?"

Dumbledore snapped out of his thoughts, " Oh nothing, just an old man's thoughts. Now let's say we get out of here?"

Neville sighed in relief and nearly ran out of the room, the smell of the body was getting to him.

Dumbledore gave one more look at the room, before quickly following the young first year. His outward appearance was calm, but his mind however was working in overdrive. If Neville saw what he wanted most in the mirror, then that meant that the mirror was back working as it should have been. But the Headmaster only made it so that once the stone left the mirror would it go back to it's original setting. If Neville never got the stone and neither had Voldemort (Seeing as the Dark Lord had not fled the chamber until he arrived), then that meant there was only one conclusion.

Someone had gotten the stone before Voldemort had ever even came into the chamber, and they did so without tripping any of the wards he had set up to warn him of an intruder. A feet that not even a powerful Dark Lord with over 60 years of experience could achieve.

* * *

><p>Harry and Max walked down the fifth floor corridor on their way to Transfiguration. People naturally moved out of their way, afraid that Harry would do some kind of Evil-Parseltongue-Magic on them. They had all seen how frightened Fred and George were of Harry, and someone that could scare the infamous pranking twins into submission was enough to make most younger kids run in fright.<p>

"Hey Harry, can I ask you for a favor?" Max asked as they turned a corner in the long corridor.

Harry eyed him out of the corner of his eye, "It depends on what what that favor is."

"Nothing impossible I assure you." Max said nervously, "I was just wondering if you could help me order one of those muggle contraptions that help you see really small stuff, micriscops I think their called?"

"Microscope, is the word you're looking for I think," Harry said "and why do you need one? What would you look at." Harry dreaded asking this question, he knew he'd just get a weird answer

"Well that's the other part of the favor, I need some of your uncle's blood."

Yep, pretty weird.

Harry stopped and turned fully to face him, "Why in the hell do you need his blood?"

"Well, he's you know, a werewolf." Max whispered the last word when he saw other student's trying to listen in on their conversation, "And I wanted to study it before, during, and after the transformation."

Ah, that made a bit more sense. Max really wanted to try and cure werewolves and he needed to start somewhere. Luckily he had a friend whose uncle was a very nice werewolf and would probably help Harry out if he asked him.

"I'll see what I can do, but you owe me."

Max blinked in surprise, he expected he'd have to beg Harry. "Well, uh... thanks!" Max said excitedly, he could finally have something to work on!

Harry only nodded his head, deep in thought. Max's personal goal of curing werewolves only reminded him of his own goal of curing his mother. He needed to know where to start, like what was wrong with Lily Potter? What exactly happened that night? Whatever happened, Harry was now determined to find out.

* * *

><p>"Man that's so unfair!"<p>

"Shut up Maximus."

"No Harry I will not shut up." Max said as he glared enviously over at the cheering Gryffindors, "That's the second time we've been cheated out of a House Cup! And this time it was from the Headmaster! That's bullshit, 160 points to three first years for doing nothing!"

Most of their housemates, who heard Max, nodded their heads in agreement,while Harry just rolled his eyes in annoyance. The House Cup was by far the most overrated thing at Hogwarts and that was now including the Boy-Who-Lived.

"The House Cup doesn't even matter, I don't see why everyone's so upset." Harry said causing his most of his house to look at him, some with anger, some with indignation. Harry gave them a pitying glance for their childish wants before going back to eating his food.

Max, who quickly snapped out of his anger, addressed Harry, "Soooo, whatcha gonna do this summer?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of potatoes, "Same thing as I always do, study."

Max looked disappointed, "Man you're so lame. No going to a summer home to hang out on a beach? No going to go hang with some babes on said beach (here he looked over at Shannon)? No sparring sessions with Nymphadora?" The last suggestion he said with a perverted grin with was easily wiped off by Harry when he shoved his friend's face into his cranberries.

"You're too annoying to deal with right now." Harry said and got up from the table, "I'm going." Truthfully, he could deal with an annoying Max any day but he had a different agenda that he had to deal with before he left Hogwarts.

"But aren't you hungry?" Max asked, not the least bit angry about his Cranberry covered face. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it as he used his tongue to lick the red sauce off his face.

Harry stared at the odd boy he had befriended when he was eleven and wondered why he ever did in the first place, "You're a moron and where I'm going will have food."

Harry left the Great Hall with only a few odd glances thrown in his direction, no one sane would leave the end of the year feast after all.

Speaking of completely sane wizards, their Headmaster got up randomly near the end, saying that there was a matter in his office that he needed to attend to and then left without another word. No one really cared of questioned it, they all knew that the Headmaster had many titles and responsibilities that he had to attend to.

The aged wizard strolled peacefully through the halls, stopping once to say hi to Peeves as he howled playfully down the corridor. Finally he got to his office and with a quick word (Skittles) to the guardian gargoyle that protected his office he strode in. And the sight that greeted him was one he truly wasn't expecting.

His phoenix Fawkes was flying around the office with amazing acrobatic skill, but he wasn't flying for fun, he was twisting through the air to catch lemon drops that were thrown to him. The thrower was none other than the extraordinary student third year Harry Potter, the intruder his wards had told him entered his office. Harry himself was, much like Fawkes, throwing lemon drops into the air and catching them in his mouth as he sat comfortably in the headmaster's chair.

"Good evening Headmaster, it took longer than I expected for you to get here." Harry said comfortably from behind his desk.

"Well you know, I'm not as young as I once was and I certainly couldn't say no to a conversation with Peeves." Albus said in equal pleasantness and took a seat in one of the two chairs where the student normally sat, "Oooh, I think I quite like this side better. I can see the whole room now."

"Maybe you should turn your desk around then." Harry said and casually put his feet up on the desk.

"Not a bad Idea Mr. Potter, but for now I have more important issues to deal with than the position of my desk. For instance a particularly mischievous third year." His eyes were turned to full twinkle.

"Yeah, I guess you're wondering why I felt the need to break into your office?" The Headmaster nodded his head yes, "Well it's quite simply curiosity and maybe a little bit of advice."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "Curiosity?"

"Yep, and to eat some of your candy with my bro Fawkes here. Isn't that right Fawkes?" He shouted over to the Phoenix who had his head stuck in a box of lemon drops, the phoenix got tired of trying to get his head unstuck and burst into flames only to appear on his golden perch.

"Well that was cool." Harry said, "And yes curiosity, I was wondering why you had all those shitty protections guarding the Philosopher's Stone."

Dumbledore gave a piercing look to Harry who wasn't fazed in the slightest, "Mr. Potter," He said slowly, "let me make a quick assumption in thinking that you are the one who got the stone from the mirror?"

Harry gave a smug smile and reached into his pocket to reveal a blood red stone that shone like glass. "Yeah, did I surprise you?" He set the stone down on the desk.

"I must say that you truly did, when did you retrieve it?" He asked, truly curious.

"About two months ago, right after I heard your little golden boy and his two friends talking about it in the library. They're not very good at whispering, I'm actually surprised that the whole school didn't know." Harry said nonchalantly before starting to poke some of the weird things on the desk.

The Headmaster's eyes were back to twinkle mode, "You truly are one of a kind Mr. Potter. I think this school may even owe you a debt of gratitude." He said causing Harry to turn away from the interesting, spinning, silver, shiny instrument sitting on the desk (which caused his cat senses to go crazy).

"Uhh, why?"

"Because perhaps if you had not taken it, Voldemort may have found a way around my protections and gotten the stone."

"Voldemort?" Harry asked very surprised, "Shit, He was here?"

Albus nodded his head, "Yes, possessing the now deceased Professor Quirrell."

"So that's who the other parselmouth was." Harry muttered

"What?"

"Oh nothing Headmaster, just a young man's thoughts." Harry said, turning one of the Headmaster's answers back on him.

The old wizard smiled, "Indeed, and in answer to your question. The protections were so mediocre because I wanted to gauge Mr. Longbottom."

"Gauge him?"

"I wanted to test his character and I wanted to... how do I put this? Polish him? Yes, you can't make a stone shine with a smooth surface. It must be rubbed against a rough surface in order to file away all the rough edges. It is the same with life, one must face hard trials before they truly become someone special."

"You wanted to see how the Idiot-Who-Lived faced off against a challenge and become the hero you want him to become?" Harry asked

"In a manner of speaking, yes." He looked somewhat disapproving at the name calling but let it slide.

"And how do you 'gauge' me, Headmaster?" Harry asked truly curious

Dumbledore stared intently at the third year before answering, "I gauge you as one of the most extraordinary young men I have ever met. You are rivaled by none in the school in terms of raw potential. And you know that, but I have never once heard you boast about it. You held the key to immortality and unlimited riches in your hand and are now giving it back. In all my years of teaching I have never seen a student progress as fast as you have." The Headmaster paused before starting again "Don't think that I make any of this up Mr. Potter, I may not be actively teaching students but I still make it my duty to know about those left under my care."

Harry was silent for a minute, reflecting on the great wizard's words. "It's a fake." Harry said

The Headmaster raised an eyebrow, "What's a fake?"

"The stone, it's not the real one."

Albus thought for a second before answering, "Yes you're right, it is a fake. How did you know?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "Instinct. Why would the stone all of a sudden need protection if it's been safe after all these years? You could just keep it under a fidelius and it would be safe forever. There was only one theory that I could come up with that could make me believe that the real stone was being protected in Hogwarts and not safely hidden with Flamel. Flamel had already died or is tired of living and left the stone to you, and you felt the need to keep it around school children for safety. A theory I didn't believe from the start."

"Ahhh, but if you believed that the stone was fake, why did you go after it?"

Harry stared at the Headmaster for a second before answering, "How much do you know of my mother's condition?"

Dumbledore seemed surprised at the answer, "Very little actually, only what Remus had told me. Such a shame really, Lily was one of the most amazing people I had ever met..." He trailed off, lost in memories.

"The best healers we could afford could do nothing to help her, she will be stuck like that for the rest of her life until I can find a way to cure her. The fake story was that she was hit with an unknown curse and sent into a coma, what really happened is far worse." Harry closed his eyes, forcing himself to remember that night. Albus stayed quiet, allowing Harry to collect his thoughts.

"What really happened was the same as what happened a night before. She was hit by a killing curse but it bounced off and hit Bellatrix instead of her."

Albus, for once in a long time, was shocked. Another person had survived the killing curse, but why was one up and about, while the other was in a hospital bed in an unbreakable coma? The Headmaster couldn't believe he didn't know, a secret like that is hard to keep for very long.

"And that's why you went after the stone, for a cure?" Albus said gently

Harry sighed, "Yeah, it was a fools hope that the stone could be real. But it's the only hope I'd had in years, I had to try."

The two stayed quiet for who knows how long, even Fawkes went quiet under the seriousness of the conversation.

"I asked for some advice at the beginning of our little chat, I was wondering if you had any idea what made the killing curse buce off. They say that you're the only one that knows what really happened the night Voldemort was killed." This had been the real reason why Harry had come to visit the Headmaster, it had occurred to him this year that he had absolutely no idea where to start when it came to curing his mother. He needed a place to start and asking for help from one of the wisest and most knowledgeable wizard in centuries seemed like a good place to begin.

Albus regarded the young man in front of him in a new light for what seemed to be the ninth time that night. This must have been the 'task' that Harry had seen in the mirror. What he was asking for was knowledge of magic of the most arcane, knowledge that was normally kept extremely close to the chest. But now, after hearing the true story of what happened to Lily Potter. How could he not help?

Albus silently got up from the guest chair and went over to one of the many large bookcases that held many thick and old tomes. After a minute of silent searching, he found what he was looking for.

"This Mr. Potter," he said, holding up a rather small (and oddly enough muggle) notebook, "is everything I know of that happened to the Longbottoms that night. There is mostly educated guesses and theories in here but as it usually turns out, my guesses end to be correct." He handed the book to the surprised third year.

"I... Thank you sir." Harry thanked sincerely and got up from the desk to leave, "If there is anything I can do to repay you-"

"There is nothing you need to repay me for, Harry. I am more than happy to help." Albus said, "Well actually, you could come have a chat with me every once and awhile. It's rare that I have someone speak to me as plainly as you do. They always insist on formalities and are far too respectful. It's actually quite refreshing to hear some vulgar language every once and awhile. It reminds me of my youth." He said wistfully, then glanced over at Fawkes, "And I can't say Fawkes wouldn't mind a visit as well." The phoenix gave a happy trill.

Harry nodded mutely before turning to leave.

"Oh, Mr. Potter! One last question." The Headmaster called out, "How did you get past my wards unnoticed when even Voldemort could not?"

Harry turned around and smirked, "That's for me to know, Headmaster, and for you to find out." He then left without another word.

The Headmaster sat contently in the guest chair for another hour, thinking about the visit from Harry Potter. It had been one of the more engaging conversations he had had in awhile. There were still a lot of things that were still a mystery about the boy, but their most recent conversation had cleared much of the questions he'd had about the studious third year. He was uncertain about a lot, but one thing that he was certain about was that wherever Harry Potter went, things would get very interesting.

And that gave Albus an idea, there was a promise he'd made long ago to an old friend that if he ever saw someone who fit a certain criteria, he'd go tell his old friend he'd found him. And Albus thought that he finally had.

"Nicholas will be most excited." Albus said to himself before retiring to bed.

* * *

><p>All Harry wanted to do was go up to his attic room and read the notebook Dumbledore had given to him.<p>

The day they had to leave had started off with Harry waking up to Max having to pack his trunk at the last minute, then escalated from there. The train ride back sucked, they were the last ones to get to the train because of Max and so they had to share a compartment with Roger, Cedric and two other fourth years he hadn't taken the time to learn the names of.

Then, after the train ride and saying his goodbyes to his friends, Remus, for some damn reason, dragged him to go shopping! For clothes! Harry had only been clothes shopping once in his life and thought it was god-awful, but apparently all the charms on his clothes that caused them to grow with him had run their course and he needed new ones. Fuck that, he'd just learn to transfigure his own clothes so he'd never have to go shopping again.

But now, finally, he was back at Marauders and on his way back to his secluded attic room for some peace and quiet.

"SURPRISE HA- Agh!"

Apparently peace and quiet were not meant to be.

"What the fuck are you doing in my room Maximus!" Harry yelled at Max who was rolling around on the floor, clutching his bleeding nose.

"Doo pundthd meh!" He cried in outrage though it was hard to tell what he was saying do to his hands covering his face. "I dink it's broken!"

"Of course I punched you, it's what you get for jumping out and surprising me! Now tell me what you're doing here."

"I wunted tho supise doo becuz dime dooving-"

"Wait stop, I can't understand a word you're saying." Harry said and fished out his wand, "_Episkey_." He muttered while pointing his wand at Max, causing a sickening crack and a cry of pain from.

"FUCK! That hurt." Max moaned

"Good, you can talk. Now tell me what you're doing here."

Max got up off the floor, "I wanted to surprise you because I'm moving in, Remus offered me a summer job to help out around here and I said yes."

"Well I surprised, now can you get the fuck out?"

"Wow Max that so cool! I know Harry, now we can hang out and your summer won't be so lame. Boy am I lucky to have a friend like you, Max. I am pretty great aren't I?" Max talked to himself

"Yes, we both know you're a moron." Harry said, "You don't have to prove it."

"Fine I'm sorry for surprising you. I'm just excited for this job, I can finally stop mooching off the Foursythe's. But I had to leave Shannon there." Here the boy looked slightly teary eyed, Harry wondered if it was real. "All alone in that big mansion, with no one to hang out with. She must be so lonely. I am the best thing in her life after all, she must be devastated."

Harry's exasperated sigh went unheard by Max, as he monologue about how awful it must be for the eldest Foursythe child to be without her 'Maxie'. The boy was a complete idiot. Shannon was probably dancing in happiness that Max wouldn't be there to annoy her for a full summer.

Harry, tired of Max's external monolog, dragged Max to the hole in the floor and push him down it.

"Leave me alone for the next twelve hours."

Once Max's head cleared the floor, Harry pulled the trap door over the hole before transfiguring a lock and locking it.

He gave a tired sigh. Great, now he'd have to put up with Max 24/7. Eh, at least things might be a little more interesting and Remus won't be so busy all the time. He still hadn't gotten a date as per their agreement at the beginning of first year.

**AN:/ I know that it might seem like I'm setting it up to me a Harry is mentored by flammel or Dumbledore, but it couldn't be farther from the truth. Neville is the chosen one and Voldemort will be his problem(although Harry might join in at times) I plan on having Harry face off with an even bigger threat that will be completely separate and original from the original Harry Potter series. Harry will not become a healer he is only interested in the subject because of lily. Harry's true passions will be fighting and learning magic. Ignor any clashing or fucked up timelines, this is fiction and my story and therefore will not follow a strict path. It will mainly use the original timeline as guidelines.**

**Once again, review as much as you can and you'll here from me soon.**


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own Harry Potter nor do I own Knowledge is Power from which my stories origins came from.**

Dumbledore is a genius.

The notebook that he'd given Harry was some of the most interesting shit he'd read in a long time. Most of the information was, as the the Headmaster said, educated guesses, but those guesses just so happened to be so ingenious that it surprised Harry that most people thought the Headmaster insane. And then Harry got to the page that was completely covered in drawings of candy, he then was back to thinking that Dumbledore was dropped on his head sometime in his life.

Some of the terms were completely foreign to Harry, which lead him to pick up at least two dozen more books in Knockturn Alley. The topic in the notebook that caught Harry's eye most was about a ward regarding blood magic, or in other words, a blood ward.

The blood ward was fueled by sacrifice, the sacrifice of one human life for another. It couldn't be done against a person's will however, one wizard or witch had to willingly give up their life for someone else. It was, actually, probably the simplest blood ward in existence. It was less of a blood ward and more of it's own brand of protection, an intent ward you could say.

The ward actually occurred a lot more than one would think. It's just that the ward was such a guarded and secret magic, that no one knew about it.

The ward did not require any runes or wand waving, the ward itself was anchored to one's blood. It was formed spontaneously and was incredibly strong. Perhaps even strong enough to stop a killing curse.

Seeing as blood magic of any sort was frowned upon by pretty much the whole world, made it so that there was almost no information on the ward. Though, it would be kinda hard to test a ward that required a willing human life in order to be cast. Harry couldn't see that there would be many volunteers that would eagerly step up to the job of testing the ward.

It was this ward that Harry thought was the reason for his mother's condition. His Father, James, sacrificed himself for Lily which caused the blood ward to come into effect and protect her. The ward would also be the most likely cause for Longbottom's survival. Alice Longbottom probably protected her son from Voldemort's killing curse which caused the ward to come into effect and stop the killing curse from affecting Neville. But why was Neville awake and well while Lily was in a coma?

The question frustrated Harry to no end.

But, despite now being extremely frustrated, Harry was happy. He now had a place to start, a path to follow.

"Harry! Can you come here for a second?" Remus called from downstairs.

Harry sighed in annoyance, this was his study time. "I don't really want to! What is it?" He called back.

"There's someone here to see you and I think that you'll like who it is."

That prompted Harry's interest. There were only three people who came to see him, Shannon, Cedric, and Max. Max was already here while Shannon and Cedric would rather be around Max than himself.

"Harry, over here!" Remus called from a corner booth. Sitting in the booth with him was a man who looked to be around fifty, he had a beer belly and was balding. He seemed to be in very good spirits however as he quickly got out of the booth to shake Harry's hand.

"Peter Branton, Mr. Potter. I really must say that I am delighted to meet you." He said joyfully.

Harry looked at the man oddly (not that he noticed) and turned to Remus questionably.

"Peter here is one of the English National Quidditch Team scouts." He clarified.

Harry was surprised, 'What would a Professional Scout want with me?... Unless... Oh you've gotta be kidding me.' Harry thought

"You want me to join the National Team?"

Instead of being surprised, Peter looked happier, "Quick as a whip, aren't you Harry? And yes I would like you to join."

"Uhh, why?" Was the intelligent response.

"Robert Beach," Branton answered, "has received irreparable damage to his left arm, ending his Quidditch career earlier than we would have liked." Harry was shocked, England's best chaser, nicknamed "the cannon" for his super powerful throws, had his career ended by an arm injury?!

"Ok, but why me? There definitely must be better choices." Harry asked, still disbelieving.

Peter laughed jollily, "My boy, clearly you doubt you own skills. You are the best chaser currently at Hogwarts and frankly one of the best I've seen in years. Your shots are not only accurate, they are almost as strong as a professional's. But that's not why we picked you, you have that little extra something that I think we need. Quidditch isn't all about being the strongest or best flying skills, it's about creativity. Being able to think outside the box, and you've got it. Why, the last person that I saw with your kind of skill was also a Potter."

Remus blinked in surprise, "James never went professional."

"Just because he didn't doesn't mean we didn't offer." Peter said sadly, "He was sorely tempted, but with the war going on and all, he saw that his talents would be better suited towards being an auror." back to his jolly mood he continued, "But luckily for us, there is no longer a war going on."

"What about school?" Remus asked

"I'm sure we can work out a schedule that will fit to everyone's needs. Why I think Bulgaria has recently just gotten a seeker around your age."

The two adults looked to Harry for a reaction, there was none. Just a thoughtful expression. "Should I accept," He began, "what is the pay like?" he asked, and Remus almost fell out of the booth he was sitting in. Harry was asked to play for his country, an honor people would normally kill for, and he asks about is the pay?!

"Oh! That's something I forgot to mention. Should you accept, Mr. Potter, you wouldn't be immediately put on the team. If I had my way you definitely would but unfortunately, I don't have the final decision. This is merely me asking you to come to the tryout where you will be compared to other Chasers from all around England." And then as an afterthought he added, "Your pay is actually random, it depends on how well you play."

The scout mentally went over the chaser pay in his head before answering, "The current rate for our chasers, from memory, is three thousand galleons per goal, fifteen hundred galleons per goal assist, five hundred galleons per interception, twenty five thousand galleons should we win the game and ten thousand galleons if we lose," he said, grinning at the gob smacked expressions on Remus's and Harry's faces. "There's also the basic ten thousand galleons a month salary when we are simply training and no matches occur. The training is intense and you should be compensated for the hard work you are putting forth for your country." he said, as the two listening were still very much shocked. The galleon to pound ratio was ⅕! If Harry won one game he got 125,000 pounds! (AN:/ 251,750 U.S. Dollars for Americans)

Peter chuckled, "Yes, new players usually react the same. Quidditch is a very popular sport with very few skilled players, and therefore it pays quite well, don't you think? After all, most games can pull one hundred thousand fans with ease." he said with a smile, as Harry and Remus snapped out of their stupor.

"I'll go to the tryout, when is it?" Harry asked immediately

"Two weeks from now, be there at nine o'clock sharp." The jolly scout got up, shook Harry an Remus' hand, then left without another word.

Remus turned to Harry and was about to speak but was cut off.

"HARRY! This is so cool! My best friend is going to be a professional chaser!" Max, who had been listening into the entire conversation from the neighboring booth, said excitedly. He then proceeded to skip/jump around the inn to the amusement of the occupants.

"Why did you hire him again?" Harry asked his bemused guardian.

"He's your friend and was the first to offer. I couldn't just say no could I?"

"You definitely could have, but it's too late now."

"Do you think you could get him to, you know," Remus gestured to the gleeful boy who was actually somehow starting to frighten occupants with his skipping, "get him to... um... stop."

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "He's your employee, deal with it." Harry left for his room, planning on doing more research on the blood ward. That idea was immediately ditched when he saw a figure standing in said room.

"A Professional Quidditch Player at the age of fourteen is unheard of Mr. Potter, I must congratulate you." The figure said

In a flash, Harry had his wand trained on the man standing near his desk studying the notebook Dumbledore had given him. What is it with strangers making surprise visits today? The Man was around five foot six inches tall, his hair was snow white which was odd since his body seemed to be that of a fairly muscular twenty year old.

"Who the fuck are you?" Harry said threateningly.

The Man turned to face Harry completely, his face had no extraordinary features except for the scar running from just above his eyebrow to just under his eye. "But I think you are no ordinary fourteen year old." he continued ignoring Harry's question, he then seemed to observe Harry and the wand trained on him, "Yes, yes I think Albus was right. You are perfect."

Harry was very creeped out by the comment (although Harry didn't disagree, he was perfect). And Albus who? The Headmaster maybe? "Who the fuck are you?" He asked again

"10 ½ inches, bonsai tree, phoenix heartstring, thestral hair, nundu whisker, and a rod of Mithril. A most interesting wand you have there Harry." The man said scaring Harry even more, only three people knew that information and this dude wasn't one of them. How the fuck did he know? "How I knew that information is irrelevant, who I am is irrelevant, everything you think you know no longer matters."

Ok, now the guy wasn't making any sense. "Tell me who the fuck you are!" Harry shouted

The man tilted his head to the side like a curious dog, "I told you, who I am is irrelevant."

"It bloody well is relevant to me! You've broken into my home and are going through my things!"

The man sighed, "This is why I cut myself off from the world long ago." He said to himself, "Young people tend to care too much about the little things. Very well, I've gone by many names. But my most famous one is Nicholas Flamel."

Ok, so now the crazy dude is the most famous alchemist to ever exist. That made things a bit more interesting.

"Y-You're Nicholas Flamel?" said a flabbergasted Harry, the man nodded his head. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Harry said without thinking.

Nicholas didn't react, he just studied Harry like science project before answering "That would take a bit longer to answer, but in short, I need your help Harry."

"You need my help?" Harry looked at him oddly, "You are one of the most famous wizards to ever exist, you have an unlimited supply of money, anyone on earth would be willing to help you."

"This isn't the kind of help you can buy." Nicholas took a seat in Harry's desk chair, "I can't tell you what I need help with. If I told you now, you would most likely back out of the challenge."

Harry stared at the legendary alchemist for a full minute, Nicholas didn't seem to mind. He actually did have all the time in the world, "Ok, let's just say I do decide to help you in whatever it is you need 'help' with." Harry took a seat on his bed, "What's in it for me and how could I even begin to try to do something if I don't know what it is? And who is Albus?"

"Albus is the Headmaster of Hogwarts, obviously." He paused, trying to remember what he was going to say next, "You can't know what it is, not until I'm completely positive you're up for it." He paused for a second then smirked, "As for what's in it for you, you get one of the worlds most famous and most wealthy wizards on your side to help you with whatever you want."

Help with whatever he wanted, now that is an offer that even Harry would be crazy to refuse. Harry was well aware that accepting an offer from Nicholas would, most likely, greatly speed up his work. Maybe even let him use the Philosopher's Stone to cure his mother, or (since he was an alchemist of great prominence) help him find a cure through alchemy.

"Can I use the Philosopher's Stone?" Harry asked

Flamel turned to look out the fake window (which was enchanted to show a mountain range). "Immortality and unlimited wealth are overrated," Nicholas said, "they are more of a curse than a-"

Harry cut him off, "I don't want to use the stone on myself! I want to use it on my mother, to cure her."

Nicholas still looked out the window, he seemed to be contemplating something."Yes your mother, I know of her condition. But unfortunately the stone, even if I let you use it, would not cure her of her fate. The stone actually only does the two things it is most known for, prolonging life and transmuting metal into gold. It does not heal like most people believe."

Well that sucks.

"I cannot offer a cure to you," he continued, "but I can offer the means to find it."

Harry sat in silence, thinking over what the man wanted. He offered a great deal, but it was a gamble. The 'help' that he wanted was probably an impossible task of some sort, the sort that could end in Harry's death. He still couldn't think of a reason why the man would need his help. But Harry wasn't the kind to back down from a challenge, especially when said challenged ended in helping his mother. Fuck it, the reward outweighed the risk.

"I'm in."

Nicholas smirked, "There is just one more thing I forgot to mention." He said it with a wicked edge to his voice, Harry almost shivered. "I need you to learn how to fight."

Alright sick, Harry actually liked fighting. This was a good thing. "Well that's good, because I actually was trying to teach myself how to fight. I guess I already got a head start."

The alchemist's smirk increased, Harry was actually quite frightened. "Not magical fighting, you'll have to learn that on your own. I'm talking about hand to hand combat. I already got your tutor ready."

Harry blinked in surprise, "You're not going to be teaching me?"

"No, this will actually be one of the few times we meet in person. The rest of the time we will contact each other either through mail or through your tutor."

"And who's that?"

"That would be me Harry dear." Was all Harry heard before the world went black.

* * *

><p>Working at Marauders was a lot different than Max would have thought. It didn't require much training, seeing as Mipsy and Alfred did all the cooking and cleaning of rooms. What he had to do was wait tables and do the occasional odd job that Remus asked for.<p>

Some of the odd jobs were pretty easy, others were downright terrible. Like the monthly cage clean up. You see, after the full moon all there werewolves would leave the cages they transformed in and immediately go back to their rooms (which Remus made half price for werewolves, so it's easier for werewolves to stay longer) to rest. This was the busiest and hardest day of the month. It required Alfred and Mipsy's full attention to the needy werewolves who were always going on and on about hurting joints, stomach aches, and what not.

Alright that was mean, the transformation probably is as bad as the werewolves make it sound. Max was just frustrated that while the two house elves got the hard job of caring for the sick werewolves, he got the nasty job of cleaning up excrement left in the cages. And then when he was done, he had to service the entire restaurant part of Marauders (although the elves still somehow got the cooking done, Max was a terrible cook) until the the elves could relieve him for his break (where he joined the werewolves and slept for the rest of the day).

Max had asked Harry to help out on these days. That douche shot him with a stream full of icy water from his wand! It's not like Harry couldn't have cleaned up the mess in the cages with a sweep of his wand. Nope, Harry went back to whatever the hell it was he did alone in his room.

Infact, Max hadn't seen Harry come out of his room in three days. Not since that quidditch scout asked Harry to try out. That was odd, Harry would at least come down once a day.

"Hey Remus!" Max shouted back into the kitchen where the man was cleaning dishes, "Have you seen Harry recently?"

There was silence for a few seconds before an answer came, "No! I haven't seen him in a while, he's probably holed up in his room. Could you go check on him?"

"Yeah, I'll go!" Max called back and made his way up to Harry's room.

His friend probably had gotten a new book and had been reading it for three days straight, it had happened to Max before when working with potions. Sometimes you just get so excited by your work that you forget about everything else. Max expected to see Harry reading a book with deep bags under his eyes. What he saw was way worse.

There Harry was, past out on his bed fully clothed in what was left of his thoroughly sliced and beaten clothing. The blue t-shirt he was wearing had bloodstains where the holes were and the athletic shorts he had on were nearly falling apart from wear. Most of Harry's upper torso was covered in bloody gauze, in the places that weren't covered, Max could see pink gashes in Harry's skin that appeared to be in the process of healing. Overall, Harry seemed thoroughly beaten to shit.

"HARRY!" Max yelled in panic and rushed over to his friends side, "Holy Merlin, what happened? Are you okay?" Max smacked himself in the face, "Of course he's not okay, Max you idiot. Look at him! He looks almost dead. Harry can you hear me?" There was no response from Harry, but Max could see the steady rise and fall of his chest. That was good, he's still alive.

Max rolled Harry over to get a good look at his face, he almost wished he hadn't. Harry had two black eyes and a thoroughly bruised face, there was a bloody gash on his forehead that was poorly covered by a band aid that had pictures of ducks on it. That was weird.

"That's it, I'm getting Remus!" Max made to move but was stopped by Harry.

"Grugah, fuck." He said not making any sense.

"What Harry, what do you need? Water? Food? Paper and quill to write you will? A sexual spar with Tonks? Anything, just tell me what you need and I will get it!"

"You're a moron." Harry made to sit up in his bed but grasped his side in pain.

"Dude! Stay down, you look like shit. Speaking of which, how did you come to, uh, look like shit?"

Harry winced, this was a conversation he had hoped to avoid for a while. Oh well, it's to be expected with his injuries. There's no way he could hide them.

"I recently started a new training regimen with a new... tutor I guess you could say." He said with a shudder.

Max looked at his injured friend incredulously, "Who's your tutor, a giant? Cause it looks like you've been stepped on by one."

Harry grimaced, "She's worse than a giant, a giant won't heal your injuries only so it can beat the shit out of you again. And I can't tell you who she is, magically binding oath and all."

"Wait, some chick did this to you?" Max said unbelievingly, Harry always seemed so unbreakable. It was weird to see him hurt. "And you're doing this willingly?"

Harry nodded his head affirmative.

Max turned to the door, "I'm getting Remus."

"NO!" Harry yelled

Max turned to his friend, "Harry, you're hurt badly. Hell, I feel hurt just looking at you. You need medical aid now."

"Don't tell Remus." Harry said pleadingly, "He'll make me stop training with her." Remus may give Harry free reign to do a lot of things that most parents would find completely irresponsible, but there was one thing that Remus took seriously and that was Harry's health.

"You want to keep on doing... whatever the hell are you doing with... whoever she is? Are you mad!"

Harry gave a dry laugh, "I might be, but I've learned more in one session with her than I could have in weeks on my own. I need to keep doing this."

"Why do you need to keep doing this? What could possibly be so important that you need to get the shit kicked out of you?"

Harry stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking over his answer. Why was he doing this, learning to fight that is. There was really no need for him to learn to fight other than Nicholas asking him to. "I don't... I don't know Maximus. All I do know is that it's important that I keep on doing it. Promise me that you won't tell Remus."

"Harry you need help, we should take you to Mungos'."

Harry waved him off, "I'll be alright in a hour or two. She gave me a potion that's supposed to heal all physical injuries in a few hours. No scars or nothing."

"Wait, you looked worse than you do now!" Max said horrified then changed to thoughtfulness, "What potion did she give you? I know of only one or two that could heal you completely, and those are high end alchemy."

"I have no idea what it was called, I was unconscious at the time. All I know it that it works, I can feel my ribs repairing themselves right now." He said joyfully and sat up in bed with only a slight amount of pain. He then looked Max in the eye and gave him one of his nastiest glares, "Promise you won't tell Remus."

"Harry, I-I just can't..." _Glare_ "You look like shit..." _Glare_ "I mean..." _Glare_ "Well..." _Glare_"FINE! I swear I won't tell him! Just stop looking at me like that!" Max just couldn't say no. Seriously, Harry's eyes were too green and too creepy. They could make him cave in seconds.

Harry nodded his head in confirmation, "Thanks Maximus. Now if you'll please leave me in peace, I should get back to sleep and heal up. Because I've gotta go and... Zzzzzz." Harry couldn't finish because he slumped over in exhaustion and for once slept with both eyes closed. Well, Max couldn't really tell. Harry's eyes were practically swollen shut.

Max shook his head and made his way down the trapdoor, "Never a dull moment." He said to himself.

* * *

><p>The rest of the summer went much the same for the two soon-to-be fourth years. Max worked for Remus and worked on his potions alone while in his room. Harry read 18 hours a day and got the shit kicked out of him once a week by his 'Tutor'. Max had some difficulty covering for his friend on those days, but Remus hadn't noticed yet<p>

There were two irregularities however, the International Quidditch Tryout and (even more irregular) Remus doing as he promised Harry by going on a date. The date unfortunately did not turn out so well and nothing became of it.

Harry had thankfully had his tutor session two days before the tryout and was therefore in top condition before it. Harry had demolished all the trials he was put through with only two close match-ups with other chasers. But, in the end, there was really no comparison. Harry was now the youngest person to ever make it onto a national quidditch team. The coach was a little dubious about a fourteen year old playing professional at first, but he accepted it in the end along with the other players.

And as happy as Harry was about making the team (which wasn't nearly as ecstatic as Max, who, when he found out the news, ran out into Knockturn Alley cheering like a madman and wasn't heard from for the rest of the day), he couldn't help but feel overworked. He had quidditch practice every weekday and the practices themselves were extremely hard. Mostly all he did right now was workout and get into shape in order to play with his much older teammates. The workout sessions were hard, but thankfully not nearly as hard as his tutoring sessions with Her, Mariah. Harry didn't even like to think about her name, too much pain involved with it. His weekly tutoring sessions with her in muggle combat, or as Max liked to call them, his weekly Harry-gets-fucked-up sessions, were going... well Harry couldn't really tell how well they were going.

He got injured in ways he'd never thought possible, like having half his left arm only dangling by tendons at his side with the rest of the skin, bone, and muscle ripped away. But after the potion he took at the end of every session or whenever he took 'breaks' (was unconscious), there wasn't even a scar left. That injury alone had almost made him stop the sessions. The only reason he didn't stop was because of the resources Flamel provided and how how fast he was progressing in fighting. Sure he might get the shit kicked out of him on a regular basis, but Harry learned that the pain inflicted was only temporary. The pain he went through made his body compensate in order not to feel that pain again. And ever since the tutoring began, Harry noticed his reflexes improve to almost insane levels, his muscles became more defined and chiseled, and he built up a rather high pain tolerance.

With all the tutoring and quidditch practices, Harry barely had enough time to work on his personal projects. His progress on the blood ward had been going slowly. He may not meet Flamel in person, but they did correspond by mail. And as long as Harry stuck with the tutoring sessions, Flamel would give Harry almost anything he asked for. But sadly even with Flamel's resources and nearly endless wealth, there was still almost no information on the blood ward. There were maybe only two or three masters in blood magic in the world and due to the way people shunned anything remotely involved with the dark arts, they preferred solitude to being hated.

And since they were masters in blood magic and all things blood related, they were extremely good warders. Blood wards worked different than others, according to one of the rarer texts Nicholas had gotten him, the only way to get around one is to overload it which is nearly impossible. The only kinds of magic that might be stronger than blood wards would have to be parselmagic or soul magic. And luckily for Harry, he could wield one such magic. Unfortunately, Harry was neither trained nor was there anyone else known on earth that was a parselmouth. So bummer, meeting blood mages would have to wait.

Speaking of waiting, Harry was impatiently doing such as Max was tearing apart his room at Marauder's in search of his 'luck socks'. It was finally the day that they were to leave for Hogwarts after a long summer break. Max was doing a last minute check through his things before they left and could not for the life of him find his lucky socks. They were the socks he was wearing the first time Shannon gave him a hug (this being after he figured out he liked her), every single time he aced a test he had worn those socks, and any time he went to Harry for help he wore them in hopes of not getting hexed.

"Can we go now? You don't need them and they smell nasty." Harry complained

"No! We shall never leave until the 'Socks of Glory' return to their rightful place on my feet!" Max said dramatically.

Harry rolled his eyes at his friend's childishness, "Have you checked your feet?"

Max stopped tearing apart the room to stare dumbly at his feet where, lo n' behold, said lucky socks were.

"Ha! Found you!" He said to his feet, "Don't you two ever go sneaking off again without me, you hear?"

Harry was now somewhat used to his friend's behavior and didn't see this as that odd of an occurrence, "You're a moron. Let's go."

"Why do you always call me a moron? It's either that or idiot." Max complained, Harry didn't answer and left the room.

* * *

><p>"Shannon!" Max yelled excitedly as soon as he saw her outside of their usual compartment. He then gave the girl a bone crushing hug.<p>

"Max! Let me go! You saw me three days ago for goodness sake!" The girl complained but was secretly flattered by her friend's enthusiasum to see her.

Max let her go and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry." he said, "It's just I've had nothing but Harry for company ever since you left and he's always too busy to hang out."

Shannon looked for the recently signed quidditch star but he was absent, "Where is he anyway?"

Max looked around, "That's odd. He was right behind me." Max shrugged his shoulders and dragged Shannon inside the compartment where they got their answer as to where Harry was.

Outside the window of their compartment, they could see cameras flashing and a large crowd converge onto one person. Harry.

Ever since the Daily Prophet released an article on how Harry had taken Robert Beach's spot as chaser on the English National team, the paper had been swarmed with articles about him. All of them having absolutely no credible information about Harry. The English National Team had closed practices, therefore the press couldn't get any pictures or interviews with Harry (not that he'd give them one) unless Harry went to them. The only credible source of information had been the English Coach's announcement of Harry's tryout. It therefore made sense for reporters and fans to converge on Platform 9 3/4 in order to meet Harry.

"Mr. Potter! What's it like to play professional?"

"Will you sign this please!"

"Mr. Potter! What is your opinion about how well the English National Team will do this year?"

"Just a few questions Mr. Potter!"

Max laughed at his friend's misfortune until Shannon punched him in the arm.

"Don't be mean! You know how much Harry hates crowds... or just people in general."

"What? It's not like Harry's all sensitive. And besides, I think it's the crowd that should worry about Harry." Max said and could now spot Harry's head in the midst of the crowd. Harry had a look on his face that Max had only seen once before, when the Weasley Twins had told the school that he's a parselmouth. His expression kinda looked like a cross between annoyance and anger along with his killer glare thrown into the mix.

All of a sudden, the crowd parted like the Red Sea, as if they were pushed apart by two invisible walls leaving a perfectly straight pathway to the train. Harry calmly pocketed his wand and walked towards the train, ignoring the struggling reporters and fans trying to move past the barrier, as if nothing had occurred.

"Sup Harry, took you long enough." Max said mockingly as soon as he walked into their compartment

Harry grunted in response and waved his wand at the invisible barrier he'd erected, it vanished allowing other students to board the train.

"Cool wand work out there." Shannon commented

Harry grunted again, clearly not wanting to talk at the moment, and took out a book to read. Max and Shannon just shrugged at each other, what are you going to do? When Harry got into one of his moods, it was almost impossible to get him out of it.

Max and Shannon settled for their usual pastime of playing chess. No one came into their compartment, not even Cedric or quidditch fans wanting an autograph from Harry. Max guessed that Harry had set up some kind of notice-me-not charm to avoid the student body.

Cedric had came over to Marauders a few times during the summer to hang with Max and Harry. Well, mostly Max seeing as Harry's time was spent either studying, at quidditch practice, getting his ass kicked, or recovering from said ass kicking. Harry barely even had time to think.

The only odd thing that happened on the train was a charmed paper airplane flying into their compartment and landing on Harry's lap. Harry unfolded it and read the message.

"Who's it from?" Max asked

"It's from our new DADA professor, Gilderoy Lockhart." Harry said, "He wants to meet me before we get to Hogwarts. Something about 'Celebrities like us sticking together.'"

"The charmed paper airplane is kinda cool, it's had to charm something to do that." Shannon commented

Harry snorted, "Yeah it would be, that is if it wasn't store bought." Harry showed them a logo inscribed on the airplane, "You can buy these in bulk from some owl ordering company. I think the Ministry uses them." Harry flicked his wand at the paper which caused it to refold it self into a much cooler airplane (in Max's opinion). It then sped out of the compartment at a much faster speed than before.

"Harry, what did you do to it?" Max asked

"I charmed it to dive bomb him and avoid all spells." He said going back to his book.

Max snickered, "That's cool."

"No it's not." Shannon protested, "He's our teacher and rather famous for all those things he did in his books. You should give him some respect Harry."

Harry scoffed from behind his book, "That man is a fraud. It you even bothered to compare information between his books, you'd see that some of the dates overlap. He was supposedly yeti hunting in the Swiss Alps at the same time he was fighting that banshee in Singapore."

Shannon looked like Harry had just kicked her puppy. "Oh, you had a crush on him didn't you?" Harry said, ignoring how the current topic of conversation was making Max mad/uncomfortable. "That's funny."

"I'm leaving to go sit with my roommates." Shannon said rather tersely, she got up and left before Max had a chance to stop her.

Max punched Harry in the arm, "Dick." He said, "Why did you have to do that? Now it's just going to be you and me for the rest of the ride."

"Cedric will be here in about ten seconds." Harry said from behind his book.

Max looked at Harry strangely but didn't doubt that their Hufflepuff friend would be here in ten seconds. He had no idea how Harry knew, but Harry had never been wrong as long as Max knew him.

"Hey guys, I've been looking all over for you." Cedric said walking in exactly ten seconds later (Max counted), "Figures it would be in the last compartment I checked."

"Sup Ced." Max said happily

Harry grunted.

"What is up with you grunting today?"

"Those damn reporters and quidditch fanatics at the station." Harry said angrily, "They were all idiots. Just because I play professional now doesn't change a thing about me, but still they swarmed me. And now that my name is big and all that shit I'm going to have to deal with that everywhere I go." Harry scowled

Max shook his head in amusement while Cedric stared at Harry in confusion, wasn't it cool to have fans?

"Harry, that's part of being famous." Max said as if explaining to a three year old, "People are going to want to meet you and get your autograph and get interviews. You're just going to have to deal with it."

Harry's scowl deepened, "I know that. What I didn't know was that everyone would act like idiots about it. Maybe I should quit."

"If you did, I'd poison your breakfast." Max said seriously.

"And it doesn't even matter anymore," Cedric added, "even if you did quit they'd still know your name. They'd just know it as the kid who couldn't handle being professional and quit instead of the youngest professional quidditch player ever."

Harry grunted (again).

* * *

><p>"So let me get this straight." Max said, "Longbottom and Weasley #6 missed the train."<p>

"Yep." Cedric said grinning

"Then, in all their brilliance, steal the Weasley's illegal flying car in order to catch up to the train."

"Uhuh." Cedric urged further

"They flew all the way to Hogwarts, being seen by seven muggles in the process, and then crash the car into the whomping willow."

"And then they were caught by Filch who turned them over to Snape. Snape decided to take away 80 points from each I think and gave them both a month of detention."

"How are they not expelled?" Max asked allowed.

Harry scoffed from his position on the other side of the Ravenclaw Table, "Like the Ministry would let Dumbledore expel the Boy-Who-Lived. Not that he would in the first place, I don't think Dumbledore's ever expelled anyone in his entire time as Headmaster."

It had caused quite a stirring in the Great Hall that morning when the youngest Weasley got a howler from his mother. It had been the loudest one anyone in the Great Hall had ever heard. Cedric had just finished telling the Ravenclaw table what had happened after he had gotten the information from the Weasley Twins. The two twins found the whole situation hilariously funny unlike the rest of their house.

The entire house of the lions had shunned the two second years for losing 160 points before school even started. Harry, once again, complained about how everyone took the house cup too seriously. It was basically a competition of who could suck up to teachers the best. There was no reward but a stupid bronze cup, and you didn't even get to brag about it seeing as you found out if you've won on the last day of school.

Speaking of shunning, Harry was doing as such to almost the entirety of the school. Every single person outside of his small group of friends felt the urge to point, stare, whisper, touch, and, god forbid,_ talk _to him. But that was just from the quidditch fanatics. The worst was the girls that wanted to ask him on a date.

If Harry thought that all the attention he had gotten last year from the opposite sex was bad, then this year was out of control. Left and right he was asked out on dates, some by the same girl in one day. Harry had started using his animagus form and his extensive knowledge of the castle's secret passageways whenever possible to avoid detection from the female population.

Max, of course, found the whole situation extremely funny and took time to lie to any girl that asked him about what Harry liked. He once told a group of girls that in order for Harry to notice them, they had to first 'capture' him. Then next day, Harry had to avoid flying tackles from females who wanted to ask him out. They all had no idea how close they had actually came to dying, or at least being seriously injured.

Harry's time spent with his tutor had made him permanently alert, Mariah (his tutor) had started jumping him randomly throughout the summer when she had thought he was past the stage of being an 'Incompetent Dumbass Brit' and didn't use that 'stupid sword form shit you read in a book'. She would sneak up on him, grab him from behind, and then they be whisked away to some random location by some kind of travel Harry had never experienced before. He thought it was called shadow walking but he couldn't be sure.

Sometimes they even fought on historical sites, like when she felt the need to throw him down the slope from the top of one of the Pyramids of Giza. How the muggles never noticed that fight, Harry had no idea. But he guessed that anything's possible when you have near unlimited resources and magic. But thanks to the random sessions, Harry now carried a pair of twin daggers that he kept strapped to himself at all times. One strapped to his ankle and one strapped to his left arm. And it took a lot of restraint not to gut the girls attempting to tackle him.

"What class do you guys got first?" Cedric asked

"Charms with Gryffindor." Max said, "Oh, but it looks like we'll have DADA with you."

"Why does Lockheart glare whenever he sees you?" Cedric said to Harry

Harry smirked, "I charmed an airplane he sent me to dive bomb him. I may have also sharpened the edges of the paper with magic as well. He must have gotten some pretty nasty paper cuts." Pretty lame prank but a prank none the less.

Max laughed, "I hope he picks you for some class demonstrations, we have a dueling unit this year. You should kick his ass." Max was still a little put out that his not-so-secret crush had a crush on their new teacher.

"He probably will pick you." Cedric said

"I look forward to it." Harry smiled menacingly.

* * *

><p>A few weeks later, Harry had actually decided to take a break from all his studying. Even he needed a break sometimes. He still had to do homework in all of his classes despite how overly prepared he was. The teachers had finally offered to give him extra lessons, but Harry had rejected them. While extra help would be appreciated, it was no longer needed. The independence that Harry had become accustomed to since his first year was something he was not going to give up.<p>

Harry only thought they offered in the first place because the assumed he'd be too busy with his weekly quidditch practices. Which was almost true, he was extremely busy and didn't have as nearly as much reading time as he would have liked. But the pay checks kept on rolling in every month and they weren't going to stop anytime soon. Despite having the resources of perhaps the richest man on the planet, there what one thing that Flamel flat out refused to do. Use the Philosopher's Stone on anything other than his wife and himself.

Harry had asked Nicholas in a letter if he could use his stone to give Harry an insane amount of money so he could stop playing professional quidditch and focus on his studies. Nicholas refused saying that he'd give Harry resources he approved of and money was not one of them. Rare books on the other hand were. But as long as money was involved, it looked like Harry was on his own (which was rather well, he made more money in one month than most wizards made in a year).

So here Harry was, walking down some random corridor, he didn't know which. It was Halloween and everyone was down at the feast accept for him, he didn't feel like being oogled by a majority of the school today. He was idly tossing a tennis ball up and down as he thought about all the stuff that had gone on over the summer. The ball never once dropped to the ground, with His insane reflexes it was all too easy. Then Harry heard something that made him stop in his tracks.

_"Kill... it'sss been ssso long... I ssmell blood... Rip... Kill..."_

Harry knew immediately that it was a snake talking, their way of speaking was too recognizable. He quickly looked around for it in the hopes of talking to it and figuring out what it was doing in a castle in the middle of Scotland. But there wasn't one in sight. It sounded as it it was coming out from the wall. The snake had escaped and there was no one but Harry in the corridor.

Or at least, that's what Harry thought before a hand grasped his wrist and he was harshly shoved into the corner.

"Agh!" Was all Harry could get out as he flung his arms out in front of him to brace for the impact of the wall. It never came. Instead darkness and the feeling of traveling two-hundred miles an hour hit his body. He was familiar with this feeling.

Harry landed and immediately went into a roll, completely forgetting about the snake he heard. And it was a good thing he did, because three throwing knives imbedded themselves in the ground of where he just was.

"You didn't think that just because you went to school means you get to skip out on our little tutoring sessions, did you Harry?" A melodious voice sang.

Harry, who was hiding behind some kind of half destroyed stone pillar, quickly analyzed the situation. Mariah had came and kidnapped him to bring him to... it looked like some half destroyed greek building or temple, and now they were going to do the usual. Mariah, trying to injure Harry as much as possible without actually killing him, and Harry trying to avoid injuries for as long as possible.

"I had hoped you'd think I was too busy." Harry said from where he was hiding, "It was a naive hope."

Her light laughter sounded like tinkling bells. Harry risked a glance from behind his hiding spot to glare at his teacher. She stood about thirty feet away, looking stunning/drop dead gorgeous as always. Her dark hair was curled and fell down to her mid back. She was wearing a skin tight black combat suit that hugged her figure (which most women would kill for) in all the right places and looked like it belonged to a spy from a movie. Her lips were blood red which was enhanced by her extremely pale skin which was a dead giveaway that she was a vampire. Her eyes were red as well and they were currently looking at Harry in amusement.

"You can stop staring Harry, it's not like you haven't seen more." She teased and it was true. He had seen more, a lot more.

On their third training session she had been under the impression that her looks were affecting Harry's fighting (she was right). So in order to get rid of the silly affection Harry had for her, she fought him nude. It had been the strangest, best, most embarrassing, pain filled, hormonal day Harry had ever had in his entire life. Mariah was a lot of things, shy was not one of them. And the strangest thing was, it worked. Once Harry had seen the whole package (so to speak), there wasn't much left for imagination and he could focus on fighting her and not fighting Harry Jr. who was trying to escape from his cotton prison.

"Well it's not like half the world's male and part of the female population hasn't seen as much as I have." Harry spat, "You're a complete slut!" It was true too. When you're immortal like Mariah or Nicholas are, you needed to find some way to spend your time. Harry guessed Nicholas experimented with Alchemy or spent time with Perenelle. Mariah spent her time practicing fighting, partying, training Harry, or having sex. She made it her personal goal to sleep with as many men as possible, and she did pretty well at succeeding in that goal. Well, whatever keeps you sane right?

"And proud of it too, Harry dear." She flashed Harry a fanged, sexy grin, "I've offered plenty of times Harry, you're always welcome to come join me in the bed room. But enough of this idle chit chat, let's get down to business."

Harry gulped. Being as old as she was (she wouldn't tell Harry how old though), Mariah was probably the best in the world when it came to physical fighting. When someone is turned into a vampire, they lose all magical abilities they currently have along with part of their soul. In return they are granted superhuman strength and speed that only gets stronger as they age. They can hypnotize those that aren't strong enough to resist. They (or al least Mariah) prefer to move in an unnatural manner that can be seen as seductive and terrifying at the same time. The sun weakens them but cannot kill them. They need blood to survive, preferably human blood. They can survive on animal blood for a time but that will weaken them as well. With age comes power, their resistance to the sun is increased along with the amount of time they can last without blood.

A muggle turned vampire is different from a witch or wizard turned. They are weaker first off and require blood almost everyday. They don't improve as quickly in terms of strength or speed and they can't hypnotize people.

Harry realized that he was wearing his school robes which were practically the worst thing you could wear in a fight. So he transfigured them into some basketball shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. He transfigured a few pebbles into leather gauntlets and shin guards. He'll probably have go out and buy some dragonhide ones to wear permanently, god knows why he didn't do that sooner.

Harry pulled out his daggers, they were plane double edged reinforced steel. Nothing fancy but were more than adequate. He took a few deep breaths before charging Mariah at full tilt. She smiled wickedly before dodging his first slash and somehow deflecting another with her bare hands. Harry didn't stop to think about how she did that, he'd seen it before and the last time he stopped the fight, he ended up being smashed in the face by a shield.

Harry started moving faster than a regular human ought to be able to as he used magic to power his muscles and speed up his strikes. It was a trick he learned out of nesessity since he had to keep up with her. He wasn't that proficient with it yet, it was a skill that took time and experience to master. The technique was mostly practiced by Asian Monks, one of whom wrote a book where Harry learned this from.

Harry ducked a punch which was quickly followed by a roundhouse kick aimed for his temple (who ever said Chuck Norris was the master of the roundhouse kick had never met Mariah, Harry took one to the face once and wound up with a dislocated jaw and a dented skull). Harry ducked the kick and attempted to sweep her legs out from under her. She jumped over his leg and pulled a knife from one of the hidden pockets on her person. The knife was thrown quicker than the eye could see and lodged itself in Harry's right shoulder. He grunted in pain and dodged her next attack by rolling away while simultaneously pulling the knife from his shoulder.

He lost one of his daggers when she hit him with that knife, so he charged her with only one dagger, only to receive a kick to the stomach which sent him flying into on of the pillars. He groaned in pain but got up looking a little worse for wear, (bruised stomach and back, possible internal bleeding, and with a few scratches here and there) another benefit of focusing magic into your muscles was that it helped prevent injury the knife wounded was barely even bleeding.

She was on him in a flash despite there being a fifty foot gap between them now. Harry dodged her next two bare handed strikes and sprinted to where he dropped his dagger when he hit the pillar. He quickly turned around after retrieving his fallen weapon and was forced to dodge a katana blade that she had pulled from one of the numerous pockets on her. She performed an endless series of slashes that Harry could only dodge or deflect with his one dagger. He got clipped once on both shoulders and another pretty bad slash on his wrist that would have been a lot worse had it not been for his gauntlets. The injuries hurt, he ignored them as he had been forced taught.

Harry ran up one of the fallen pillars leaning on the foundations of another fallen pillar in order to get the higher ground advantage. She followed him up, her blade slashing in a seemingly wild fashion that made it impossible to predict where the next strike would come from. To an outside viewer, they looked like a blur of motion, almost impossible to keep track of. Harry could only deflect her slashes, despite her katana being a light weapon, there was an unholy strength behind it that Harry had been on the wrong end of before.

They finally made it to the top of the slanted pillar and Harry had somehow managed not to take any serious hits. Unfortunately Harry had run out of room and could no longer back up to avoid her longer reaching weapon. Seeing no other option, Harry back flipped off the end of the fallen pillar using his heightened feline balance and agility to manage it while still deflecting a strike from Mariah mid air. He landed on the ground and quickly did a backwards roll to avoid damage from the impact and the falling Mariah who cracked the stone floor when she landed.

Harry had to dodge a wickedly spiked, 30 pound mace that was swinging at him in a long horizontal arc. He was reminded of the scene in the third Lord of the Rings movie where the Witch King uses his giant mace on Eowyn, he didn't have much time to think on it. Avoiding death and all.

The range Mariah had with her mace was keeping Harry away but it was also one of the easier weapons to dodge. Harry made to roll under one of her swings but didn't go low enough and was clipped on the back. Normally being clipped wouldn't lead to a bad injury, but what the mace lacked in speed it made up for in force. One of the mace's spike dug deeply into Harry's back before it was ripped out. Harry cried out in pain, he definitely just fractured one of his vertebrae. But his spinal cord wasn't cut (unlike last time) so he could still move.

But this injury would lead to his downfall. His back was in too much pain and he could not twist out of the way to avoid a powerful kick to the chest. The kick sent him flying back fifty feet into another pillar where he smacked his head hard up against it and fell to the ground unconscious.

Mariah sighed and went to attend to her young pupil. She force fed him one of Nicky's potions that would get him completely healed in a few hours where he would once again wake up and they could battle it out to their hearts content... Well her heart anyway. She wasn't worried about him missing school, Nicky had given her one of his time turners to make up for any time they needed.

"Better go tell Nicky that he needs to come fix whatever damage we caused to the Parthenon." She said to herself, "At least this time we didn't break anything hard to fix like the time we broke George Washington's nose off on Mt. Rushmore. Good times."

AN/: Here's chapter 10 in my story. Sorry it took longer than a month but this was a rather hard chapter to write. As you can see, I just added my own twists to the story that will steer it in a direction completely different from 'knowledge is power'. Trust me, you'll like where the story is going especially when I bring Sirius into the story. I have a few surprises for him that I think you'll like. After all these reviews and messages saying they agree with me about how the Remus/Tonks was creepy, I have made the final decision and have decided to have different pairings for each. I'll still get Tonks in the story, don't worry. I know she's one of everyone's favorite Characters. That was the first fight scene I've ever written so let me know how it was and if you liked it. Daggers will not be Harry's weapon of choice, they are simply the easiest to conceal and are the kind of things I'd use in a fight so I naturally chose to use them. For Harry's final weapon I plan on something amazingly sick but he probably won't have it until fifth or sixth year. I tried to add a bit more humor into this chapter than I had in the past, let me know if it's funny and if you liked it. As always write lots of reviews and I'll try and get the next chapter up and running as soon as possible.


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own anything from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling**

"Really? 'Enemies of the Heir beware', that just sounds gay. And written in blood, how cliche." Harry commented dryly

Max had just got done telling him about what happened last night during Halloween while he was training with Mariah. Someone had written a message on the wall in blood as well as petrified Mrs. Norris. Harry didn't at all care for the caretaker's cat nor was he afraid of Salazar Slytherin's mystical chamber. According to the message, The Chamber of Secrets (stupid name) had apparently been opened by the Heir of Slytherin.

Max laughed, "You would just make fun of the situation while everyone else is scared shitless." It was true, students wouldn't walk around school alone. They would go around in groups of four or more.

A majority of the students assumed that it was Harry behind Mrs. Norris' attack. All because he was a parselmouth and parselmouths are obviously all evil. Harry didn't really mind though. His parselmouth ability proved its usefulness once again by making most of the students stay away from him. He got scared looks from a majority of the student body, but he'd rather get those looks than have them try and talk to him.

Harry shrugged, "Not my fault everyone in this school is scared of some stupid legend."

"Yeah," Max agreed, "Oh shit! It's Wednesday isn't it? That means we got the blonde-tosser first thing, dammit!" he complained/whined, not that Harry blamed him. Lockhart was a pain in the ass.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was almost as much of a joke as it was last year, however this year, at least they could understand the professor when he spoke (which was almost as worse as Quirrell's stuttering, seeing as all Lockhart talked about were highly exaggerated versions of the feats he never committed). Quirrell was just useless in general, but even though it was a step up, it was painfully clear to everyone, especially the Ravenclaw females who had been infatuated with him previously, how much of a fraud he was.

Max took great pleasure in seeing Shannon looking sour about a particular class they had with him where he had her act as a werewolf while he "demonstrated" how he dealt with it. He had wanted to use Harry initially for the werewolf, but much to Max's amusement, as soon as his name was called, the Quidditch Star simply walked out of the class, flipping the professor the bird in the process. He got two days of detention for that stunt and a 'stern' talking to from Flitwick, which mainly consisted of the tiny professor trying to reprimand Harry for his actions while simultaneously trying to fight off the smile that was fighting to break through his 'teacher facade'.

"Good morning class!" Lockhart said a little too cheerfully as he entered the room. He flashed the class his award winning grin causing the less intelligent females to sigh dreamily.

"As some of you might have heard," he began, "Dumbledore has given me permission to start a little dueling club. And seeing as how we just ended a chapter, I have decided that to get you all excited for the opening of the club tonight, that we will have a little dueling unit in class just for today." He announced happily

That got some excited whispers from the class, most of them (all the male population) knew Lockhart was useless. But, this didn't sound too bad. They got to practice magic after weeks of just reading from books.

"Quiet, now! Quiet!" Lockhart called out, "Now I want you all to break out into groups of two and spread out."

Most girls immediately looked to Harry. Harry noticed this and sprang to Max's side in order to avoid any confrontation with fangirls.

"If I didn't want to spend any more time in detention, I'd leave right now." Harry muttered to Max

"Hey, this could be fun." Max whispered back, "We get to use curses and jinxes on each other with no consequences."

"Now!" Lockhart called out, gaining the class' attention again, "On the count of three, you will fire a spell at your partner in attempts to disarm, and only disarm." An order that would most definitely be ignored. "Ready! One! Two! Three!"

Many of the students shouted at the top of their lungs when the said the spell, some dropped their wands because they weren't 'ready', but most didn't even produce a spell. Just stood there dumbly trying to remember how to do the spell they want to use.

"Come on!" Harry urged to Max, "Give me your best shot!"

Max knew that Harry could take anything he could dish out, so he didn't hold back in firing as many stunners, trip hexes, and leg-locker curses as he could.

Harry was slightly surprised at the volume of spells coming his way. Nymphadora had fired off nearly twice as much and her's were completely silent, but she had been practicing with Harry for two years before she reached that number. Max did not practice and surprisingly said the incantations under his breath.

Harry batted away three of the five stunners with the tip of his wand (the other two completely missed), he jumped over the two trip hexes, and simply sidestepped the leg-lockers.

"Been practicing some silent casting?" Harry asked

Max grinned, "I see you doing it all the time, seemed like a useful skill."

"Oh it is, but firing spells like those are too easy to dodge and block. You need to get more... creative." Harry smirked causing Max to hastily erect a 'protego' in preparation of what he knew was coming.

Harry gave his wand a counterclockwise twist with a slight flick downwards. The result was a barely visible gold thread shooting out of his wand at high velocity. The thread passed through Max's shield like it wasn't even there and then wrapped itself around the surprised fourth year's arms and legs. Max fell to the ground and started to squirm in an attempt to break free from his bindings.

"You won't be able to get out of that." Harry said, "It's about as strong as it gets. I could hogtie a dragon without it breaking free."

Max stopped squirming "What is this stuff?" He asked

"My personal modified version of a shield that stops physical attacks." Harry said, "It was used in the siege of castles to stop the giant boulders launched by catapults, you kinda created a big golden shield. It was only used once the wards fell. Problem was it was extremely hard to keep up, took maybe five wizards to keep it up for maybe five minutes at a time. You could move it almost  
>anywhere though and as fast as you wanted it." Harry flicked his wand causing Max's bindings to dissipate into golden mist. "I just concentrated it into a thin stream so it doesn't take nearly as much energy to keep up."<p>

"Your a right scary dude, you know that?" Max said rubbing his wrists

"If I wanted to be scary I could have constricted the bindings until your hands were cut off or simply used it as a whip and lynched you." Harry said seriously

"Why are we friends again?"

"I've been asking myself the same question for four years now." Harry looked around at the rest of the class. It was rather pathetic that most of them couldn't even produce a shield charm right. At the rate they were going at so far, only about half their class would be able to pass their OWLs next year.

Harry spied Lockhart on one side of the classroom. He was surrounded by concerned and amused students, watching their teacher roll around on the ground begging the girl who accidentally cast the tickling charm at him to cancel it. Only problem was she didn't know how.

"Let's leave." Harry said and walked towards the door.

Max got up off the floor, "Right behind you."

* * *

><p>"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow up." Harry said disbelievingly, "You're telling me that Longbottom, our incredibly stupid and untalented Boy-Who-Lived, is a Parselmouth?"<p>

Max nodded his head affirmative, quite disbelieving himself. During Lockhart's dueling club the night before, there had been two interesting highlights. One was Lockhart getting knocked on his ass by Snape, the other was finding out that their resident Boy-Who-Lived is a Parselmouth.

Harry was finding out during breakfast due to the fact that he had been unable to attend (not that he would have) do to Quidditch Practice.

"Man, I've been missing a lot of stuff this year." Harry said to himself. First it was missing Mrs. Norris being petrified and seeing the message with the rest of the school, now it was missing the discovery of another parselmouth. Waht would happen next? Max would grow a pair and ask Shannon out, pft yeah right!

"No kidding, but what you're doing is much more important." Max said, "With all the time you've been putting into quidditch, you better win the World Cup."

"Yeah, you better Harry." Roger Davis, the newly elected Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain said from down the table. "Because we're spotting a team of rookies right now."

Harry had played quidditch with Roger for two years and had gotten used to Roger's laidback attitude. Therefore he didn't really mind when the boy talked to him.

"You play Gryffindor on Friday right?" Harry asked, "That's rough mate, with Wood, the Twins, and the 3 Foxes, you'll have your hands full."

"No, you guys can win it easy." Max disagreed, "Just have Cho catch the snitch as fast as possible. Longbottom's not even very good, he just has a good broom."

"He's actually right, having Chang catch it will be about your only shot at winning. As much as I hate to admit a seeker could win a game for you, but you just don't have the talent in chasers to work with. Chang is your only chance but hey, she's way better than Longbottom."

Said girl, hearing that three of the better looking boys in school (one of them being a recent quidditch star) complement her flying skills, started blushing beet red in embarrassment.

"Aww, is ickle Cho embarrassed?" Roger teased, Cho just slid further down the bench.

"Let me know how it goes would you?" Harry said, "I'll miss your game, we got our first game on Friday too."

Roger's interest peaked, he asked "Who are you playing?"

"Argentina."

"Ouch, they got Enrique at keeper right? He supposed to be one of the best in the world."

"Yeah but our Keeper is only a few ranks below him and our Chasers just outclass theirs. Plus we got me, so it's practically impossible to lose."

"Rather high opinion of yourself, don't you think?" Max teased

Harry shrugged, "I'm allowed to have one if I want. You do always say I'm a bit of a narcissist, might aswell make it true." Harry got up and left breakfast without another word.

Come Friday night, Max sat in the Ravenclaw Common Room, waiting for Harry to come back from his first professional game. They weren't allowed to have a Wizard Wireless Radio at school, so Max couldn't have listened to the game. The only way to get news from outside of Hogwarts was through the Daily Prophet.

Speaking of quidditch, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team won against Gryffindor in a fairly quick match. Cho Chang caught the snitch over Longbottom in half an hour, it wasn't much of a contest, the Lions were better than Ravenclaw overall but couldn't capitalize early enough in the game in order to get far enough ahead. Bell, Johnson, and Spinet were good chasers, but not good enough.

It was late, almost midnight, and Max was beginning to fall asleep. Luckily, Harry chose that moment to walk in looking extremely tired.

"Well? How'd it go? Did you win?" Max asked excitedly. Harry didn't answer, he just collapsed on the couch and shut his eyes.

After a few moments he answered, "Yeah, we won. 440 to 390, they caught the snitch."

Max was impressed (and ecstatic on the inside), it was hard to win by that much without catching the snitch. This just proved Harry's point that chasers were much more important than the seekers, chasers were consistent and you could use a strategy. With seekers it was more about luck, normally whoever saw the snitch first caught it. Only on rare occasions did two seekers go head to head.

"SWEET!" Max yelled before remembering that everyone was sleeping and continued in a low whisper, "How did you do?"

Harry took another moment to answer, "I scored 20 goals, had 14 assists, and 2 seeker blocks."

"Dang dude! That's awesome! Wait to go." Max whispered excitedly.

This was probably one of Harry's most important games. Seeing as the press had not yet been able to get an interview off of Harry, they had no clue what to write about him. There had been a lot of speculation (most of it bad) about how Harry, the youngest player in the pros, would play. They mostly assumed the English Scouts recruited Harry in order to raise their publicity and draw more fans. All of England would be in for a shock tomorrow when they learned how well Harry played, they'd be singing his praises and be calling him a quidditch protegee.

"Yes, yes now could you keep it down?" Harry said irritably, "I just walked up fuck knows how many effing flights of fucking moving stairs in this effing big as hell castle. I'm not walking anymore, I'm sleeping on this couch tonight. Goodnight." Harry collapsed headfirst into the pillow.

* * *

><p>"Come on Harry, pretty please?" Max begged<p>

"No."

"Just one quick ride, thirty seconds is all I'm asking."

"No."

"I'll make you any potion you ask."

"Don't care."

"I'll poison your breakfast."

"No you won't."

Max sighed, Harry got all the cool stuff. It was about a week before Christmas Break and Harry had gotten just about the coolest thing Max had ever seen. According to Harry, after they won their last game a new broom manufacturer approached the English Team Management and presented to them a new prototype broom that's to be released in the coming summer. The manufacture called it the Firebolt, and offered one to each of the English players if they used it in all of their games. Harry said the broom was near unbreakable, could go naught to 150 in under ten seconds, had nearly full manoeuvrability, and was in another ballpark when it came to price.

But Harry, being the everlasting douche that he is, won't let Max even touch it. Max may not like playing Quidditch, but he certainly liked flying.

"If you won't let me fly it, can you atleast let me see what's in that other package you brought?" Max pleaded, it had been killing him to see what was in the rather larg box Harry had brought back from his game.

Harry grunted which Max took for an affirmative response. He quickly opened the box before Harry changed his mind, only to find...

"What the hell are these?" Max said in absolute puzzlement, there were blue plastic jugs of powder and little bags of pills in the box.

"Protein shake mix, a muscle regeneration supplement, a few different kinds of multivitamins, and a muscle mass stimulant." Harry said without looking up from his book

"Heh?" Max said intelligently

"Stuff that will help make me stronger." Harry clarified

"Is this part of your quidditch training?" Max asked as he opened up one of the plastic jugs, he got a bit whiff of the light pink powder inside. "Man that smells! And you have to drink that crap?"

"Once a day and after every workout, plus one of those little packages of pills everyday. I'll tell you if there's one thing muggles got right, it was muscle training." Harry shook his head in wonderment

"Wait this is muggle stuff?"

"Duh, what wizard in their right mind would use plastic for anything? It melts when magic is cast on it. Coach says that this is the best way for me to get stronger, which I'll need if I wanna keep up with the adults." Harry lied, well... not a total lie. Harry didn't really need to get stronger, seeing as he could use magic to enhance his muscles enough to the point where he could rip a trolls arm out of it's socket. But channeling too much magic at one time can be harmful and doesn't improve your muscles. Harry didn't want to have to rely on magic all the time.

Max put the plastic jar back in the box as if it were a bomb and got up to leave. "Well, I'm going to go bother Shannon, have fun with your stimulants or whatever."

Harry looked up from his book to make sure Max was gone. Setting aside his book, he slid off his bed and moved over to his bookcase on his side of the room. He ran his hand down the spine of the big green book before pulling it. There was a small rumble before the bookcase opened forward with a creek and revealed a hidden room behind it. Slightly cliche, yes. Insanely cool to have a hidden room behind a bookcase, hell yes!

This is one of the only places in school Harry could go where he would not be bothered by anyone, not even Max knew about it. It was warded so that only someone like Professor Flitwick or Dumbledore could break in undetected. It was also the place where Harry kept his books of a more questionable nature that he had gotten from Nicholas, books that (if he were to be caught) could send him for a term in Azkaban.

The room was lit by torches with white fire in them, the bookshelf was small but contained large books bound in leather and looked to be hundreds of years old. An elegant chair sat next to a fire of white flames, an endtable piled high with books sat beside the chair. A chalk board took up and entire wall, on half was covered in arithmacy equations and the other half of the board was covered in a runic complex. There was a work bench on one side of the room that had pieces of wood and metal with runes edged into them. One piece of metal looked to be in the process of becoming a sword of some sort but the metal was warped and chared in some places, a failed attempt at making an ever-sharp and unbreakable sword that was tied to his blood so it could not be disarmed or taken from him without his permission. An engraving pen sat on the right side of the table right next to what only muggleborns would recognize as a laptop computer.

There were only a few things that Harry liked doing and they were fighting, studying, playing quidditch, and breaking the laws of magic. The last one was something he had great fun doing, completely changing an aspect of an accepted reality was exilerating to him, except no one knew it yet.

Harry had broken three laws of Transfiguration, one accepted theory of spell creation, and altered two supposedly unchangeable rune complexes. And He was just getting started. The laws existed simply because no one had ever questioned them and had taken what they said as complete truth, no one until Harry. There were two reasons he had not yet released his findings to the public yet. First off, who would believe a fourteen year old kid had broken an unchanged and accepted law that had lasted over a century? Harry was going to wait until he was older and more accepted in the eyes of the world to release his findings. And reason number two; it would be fun watching the reaction of the academic wizarding community as half their reality was shattered, great fun in Harry's opinion that is.

And now Harry was onto his next project; making electronics work around magic. It had taken some doing and a lot of favors from Alfred and Mipsey to do it, but Harry had gotten three laptops, six cell phones, and one desktop computer smuggled into Hogwarts. And now Harry was experimenting. The workbench he worked at along with the chest he kept them in was warded with an anti-magic barrier that kept all ambient magic away from the electronics, it allowed Harry a clean and safe working environment to make sure his experiments didn't blow up in his face.

"Ahhh, thought he'd never leave." Harry said, "Now where was I... Oh yeah I was replacing all the plastic components in the circuit board." Harry knew the laptops inside and out, memories that he'd lifted (legilimency) off of a computer designer over the summer made sure of that. After all, it would be stupid to try and take apart something if you didn't know how to put it back together.

* * *

><p>Christmas break hit and Harry left for Marauders to celebrate with Remus while Max and Shannon left for the Foursythe's to do the same. While Harry may spend Christmas Eve with his mother, he and Remus did spend Christmas Day together which was more of simply having dinner together and then relaxing away for the rest of the evening.<p>

Currently, Harry was eating his lunch in the main room of Marauders as opposed to his room. Everyone, even Harry needed a change of setting sometime and he had been cooped up in his room for the last three days. He needed to get out and do something, coach had given them the week off but under the threat to stay in shape or else they will be running the gauntlet (a quidditch player's worst nightmare, 4 bludgers were released along with the entire team having a beater's bat except for one person. That person had to dodge until they were either knocked from their broom or collapsed from exhaustion). Suffice to say, Harry spent two hours every day on a workout routine.

But now Harry was bored and was in the need of someone to bother... Ah, perfect.

"Nymphadora, what are you doing here?" Harry said

Said girl swung around and fired off a medium range stinging hex at Harry's head. Her reflexes had gotten better, but so had Harry's. By an insane degree.

Harry simply tilted his head ever so slightly to the side to avoid the spell by nanometers. It left a small smoking hole on the couch. Oh well, Remus could fix that.

"Harrikins!" The newly instated pink haired auror said excitedly, "I haven't seen you in so long!" she quickly came over and gave him an awkward one sided hug on the couch.

Releasing him she said with a scowl, "Don't say my name."

Harry rolled his eyes at her, some things never change. "Whatever, but what are you doing here?"

"I always come here on Tuesdays, it's the only day Mad-Eye will let me have a lunch break outside of the auror office. He gets his eyeball waxed or something on these days." Harry shuddered at the thought, "You're just never here to see me. And that reminds me!" She smacked Harry on the back of the head, "A National Quidditch Player, that's insane!"

"You should see our training regiment."

"Can't be any worse than Mad-Eye's." she said, "He had me running laps around our training facility once. Even though I'm not his apprentice anymore, he still treats me like I am. Which isn't so bad once you get to know the man, but he's still paranoid as hell and need's to take a chill pill every once and awhile."

Harry scoffed, "Coach has us run miles on a regular basis. I have to run around the Black Lake every other day." Not to mention the hell I go through whenever I fight with Mariah. Harry thought

Tonks gaped, "Thats like ten kilometers!"

"Twelve. But what did you expect, it's a nationally followed sport and I'm being paid a shit-ton to play. We're supposed to be the best our nation has to offer, so coach makes sure we're always in top condition no matter where we are." Harry said

There was a moment of silence before Tonks could think of a response, "You know," she started, "I couldn't believe my ears when I first heard you went national. Moody had the wireless playing some times when he used to train me, and when I first heard it come out of those speakers, I was so shocked that I completely forgot to dodge and took a banisher to the face."

"Good story." Harry said sarcastically, "I thought I trained you better than that Nymphadora."

Her face got red at the sound of her most hated word, "Oh, yeah! You wanna take a trip down memory lane Potter? Let's go here and now." She challenged

Harry yawned, "As much as I would like to put you in your place, I don't think your crush would like it if we trashed the place."

"My crush?" She asked confused, "Oh you mean Remus! Oh please, I got over that last year. It was just a silly childish crush, nothing more."

"And that's why you come here every Tuesday? Because you're so over it." Harry challenged.

"The food is good and cheap, and then there's the off chance I get to see my favorite fourth year."

"I thought that was me." Max said from the door

"Maxie!" The over excitable metamorphmagus said and quickly ran over to give him a hug

"Uhh, good to see you too Tonks." He said as the girl that he was now about the same height with crushed him in a hug, he tried to pry her arms off but to no anvil. He looked helplessly over at Shannon who just gave him an evil smirk. Pft Slytherins, they all had the same smirk, they probably practiced in the mirror all throughout first year. Max didn't even bother to look to Harry for help, he already knew the answer.

"Good to see me!" She said in mock, "That's all you have to say after we spent almost my entire seventh year picking on Harrykins here. You were my partner in crime! But you never even wrote me a letter!"

Max looked over to Harry while still trapped in his Tonks-Hug, "I thought we were supposed to be the immature ones, not the other way around."

"You are immature." Harry said, "Just marginally less than she will ever be. She will forever be a child in the eyes of society."

Tonks turned around to face Harry, except her face wasn't her own. It was Harry's.

"She will forever be a child in the eyes of society." She mimicked

"Oh that's sooooo funny." Harry said sarcastically

"Oh that's sooooo funny." She mimicked causing Max and Shannon attempt and fail to hide their giggles behind their hands.

"Ok, you're all stupid." Harry said irritably

"Ok, you're all stupid."

"I'm going up stairs to my room."

"I'm going upstairs to my room."

"Why did I even talk." He muttered to himself as he walked up the stairs to his room ignoring his friend's laughter.

* * *

><p>Shannon didn't know what to do.<p>

Her fourth year of Hogwarts had been going fairly well. Her grades were up to her parent's standards, that arsehole Flint finally got the (painful) message that she didn't want to be his girlfriend, and neither Max nor Harry had done anything that embarrassing or annoying to her. It had all been going pretty well.

Until January came around that is.

It had been a regular day, classes had been a little bit harsher than usual but she somehow managed to suffer through them. Max had sat next to her during charms, he decided to have a one sided conversation with her about the second stage brewing process that came with making a cure to liver spots... He doesn't really know what proper conversation is. But Shannon didn't mind, Max had an endearing quality about him that just made you stick with him despite how annoying he can be. Merlin knows how he and Harry became friends. If he couldn't pull off one hell of a puppy-dog face and wasn't so amusing sometimes, Shannon was sure that Harry probably wouldn't hang out with Max at all.

Shannon knew Max liked her, knew it even before Harry bluntly pointed it out to her. She had just been ignoring all the obvious signs that pointed to it. In her mind, Max's crush was actually kind of sweet. But she'd never tell Max and God forbid Harry (lest he somehow already knew). If Max knew she thought that, he'd... well she didn't know how he'd act but she didn't want to find out. And Harry would just mock her in some way regardless of Her or Max's feelings. Harry just wasn't all touchy feely like that, at all.

Anyway, it all started right after charms...

"Crap, I forgot my Transfiguration essay." Shannon said suddenly remembering that she left her due homework sitting on the desk in her room. "I'll be right back." She turned to leave for the dungeons

"You want me to come?" Max asked

"No I'm fine, the older members of my house don't like any non-snakes knowing where our common room is. I'll just be a second." She quickly left, hoping to make it to Transfiguration before passing time was up.

Shannon fast walked down the fifth floor corridor (seeing as running was frowned upon in the house of snakes), ducked under two secret passageways and came out on the second floor only to find water.

"Oh that's just great! Who the hell flooded Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom." She said frustrated, no one even went in the stupid ghost's bathroom, why the hell was it flooded?

Coming around the corner and trying to avoid getting any water on her robe, she heard a noise. Someone was crying and it didn't sound like Myrtle.

She entered the bathroom and called out, "Hello?"

The crying stopped and silence reigned. Shannon looked around the bathroom nervously before she was knocked over into the water by someone.

"Ugh!" She cried indignantly and tried to get a look at the one who knocked her down, but she landed on her back and only caught a glimpse of long red hair.

"Hey!" Shannon called out but whoever it was was already gone. "Hmpf!" She didn't even know what to say, who the hell knocks someone over into water and then just runs off?

Something caught her eye, "What's this?" She walked over to what looked to be some kind of book on the ground. A book that hopefully had the name of the arsehole that pushed her into the water.

"Who the hell is... Tom Marvolo Riddle?" She thought aloud and then opened up the soaked book only to find blank pages. "It's a diary. What guy writes in a diary?"

And that's where the trouble all started.

Shannon left the blank diary of Tom Riddle sitting on the top shelf in her room, and it sat there for another week. But one night when she couldn't fall asleep and couldn't think of anything to do, she decided to write in the diary. But then the bloody thing started writing back to her!

Tom, it called itself, would write back whenever she wrote to it. Tom was amazingly charismatic even though it was only in writing, he was charming, entertaining, and a great way to vent frustrations she had. Writing to Tom was addicting, and she realized that. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late.

She started having moments where she'd black out and then wake up and not remember how she got where she was. Along with vague, weird dreams she'd have during these times. She couldn't quite remember them, only have odd senses of deja vu about certain things.

It was really starting to scare her, and it was starting to happen more frequently. It had been two months since she first started writing in the diary, and it had taken her this long to realize what the problem was. Tom was controlling her somehow! She tried destroying the diary but nothing worked! Burning, tearing, exploding, drowning, giving it to one of Hagrid's pets to eat, not even having the whomping willow spend time with it did anything! The diary would always appear on the top shelf of her room every time she tried to lose it. And now she was ready to suck up her pride and go to the one person she knew could help, Harry.

But on her way to the not-so-secret and easy to break into Ravenclaw common room, someone stopped her.

"Ah Ah Ah, not so fast Shannon dear."

She spun around so fast it almost gave her whiplash. And what she saw was about the last thing she was expecting. A boy, a very handsome boy stood directly behind her. He had dark wavy hair, aristocrat features, and clear blue eyes. He looked about two years older than Her and judging by the Slytherin Crest on his robes, he was in her house as well. Only problem was she had never seen him before in her life. And in Slytherin, everyone knew everyone.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked/demanded and went for her wand. It wasn't there.

"Looking for this?" the boy asked innocently and twirled HER wand around his hand.

"Give me that!" She yelled and made to lunge for her wand but realized her shoes were stuck to the floor.

"You, are not going anywhere. Especially not to this Harry Potter." He smirked at her dumbfounded expression, "Yes, I read your thoughts. And as to who I am, I am surprised that you don't recognize me. You did spend the last month writing to me."

It took her a few seconds to process this, "Tom?"

He smirked at her and then the world went dark.

* * *

><p>Max was frustrated.<p>

Not frustrated with Harry, potions, school, or life. No, it wasn't that simple, he was frustrated with Shannon.

She had continually been avoiding him for the past month and he didn't know why. She wouldn't talk to him, or from what he could tell, anyone. Her grades had began to drop and she seemed to be getting paler and avoided going outside to enjoy the spring weather of March and light sun they had been getting.

She avoided all conversation like a plague and Max was getting worried. For the past two months, this had been going on and it needed to stop. But now he couldn't find her.

"Harry have you seen Shannon recently?" Max asked

"Define recently." Harry asked from behind his book

"Uh... I don't know, when was the last time you saw her?"

"Two days ago at dinner."

"And you haven't seen her since." Max pressed

"No."

There was a moment of silence, "Harry, have you noticed anything weird about Shannon these past few months?" Max asked

"Other than the fact that her grades have dropped, she has been rather anti-social, she has not been eating well, hasn't seen sunlight in weeks, and has been obsessed with that little diary of hers." He looked up, "Other than that no."

Ok, Harry was really observant. "And you're not worried about her at all?" Max asked

Harry shrugged, "I'm sure she just has problems to work out or something, don't worry about it."

"It's just that with Dumbledore gone, I'm worried about her. She walks around school alone and I'm afraid that whatever is attacking people will get her." Everyone was scared that something would attack them, when Malfoy Senior came and suspended Dumbledore from his headmaster position, everyone started to stay in their dormitories or spend as much time outside the castle as possible. But nevertheless, there were still attacks on a Hufflepuff boy, Sir Nicholas, and that Granger girl. All of them becoming petrified after Mrs. Norris and the little insufferable Gryffindor with a camera.

"Sheesh, would you stop pouring all your worries onto me?" Harry asked, "What do you think I am, a priest?"

"Some friend you are," Max started, "thanks I feel so mu-" But he was cut off.

"ALL STUDENTS ARE TO REPORT TO THEIR DORMITORIES IMMEDIATELY." McGonagall's voice rang out over the school

Harry and Max were already in their dormitory so they didn't have to move anywhere. But just because they didn't have to, didn't mean they didn't.

"Let's go check it out." Harry said and hopped off his bed and made his way out of their common room with Max following right behind him. Anything that warranted the entire school being put into lockdown was worth checking out.

"-oof that one of our students has been taken by the monster into the chamber." The deputy Headmistresses' scottish accent wrang down the corridor that Max and Harry were walking down. Harry quickly pulled Max into an alcove to avoid detection.

"What does this mean Minerva? For the school and the students." Madame Pomfrey asked

"I am afraid Hogwarts will be closed, send word to all the parents that their children will have to come home."

"Who is it that was taken into the chamber?" Sprout asked

A moment of silence before the transfiguration teacher answered, "Shannon Foursythe." She said gravely.

Upon hearing this, Harry immediately clapped a hand over Max's mouth to avoid the outburst he knew would come. Shit! This was not good.

"MHMHHHHHMH!" Max yelled into Harry's hand

"Shhhhh, wait until they leave. Then we can talk." Harry whispered fiercely

The sound of fading footsteps signaled the teachers leaving. Harry took his hand of Max's mouth and they both peaked around the alcove they were hiding in. There on the wall the teachers had gathered at, were words written in blood:

Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever

Harry turned to Max, the boy seemed to be in a bit of shock.

"Oh shit, Shannon. Oh shit, Shannon. Oh shit, Shannon. Oh shit, Shannon." He kept on repeating to himself. Harry slapped him hard on the face.

"Shut up and focus. If you want to rescue Shannon we've got to move fast." Harry said and mentally started calculating everything he'd need to do.

"Right, uhhh... what do we do. We don't even know where the chamber is and we don't know what the monster is or how to fight it. I don't know what to do!' Max started to hyperventilate, Harry slapped him again to get him to calm down and because it was fun.

"Calm down, take a deep breath and focus. I know where the chamber it and the monster is a basilisk. Just let me take care of that."

"A b-b-basilisk? The monster is a basilisk?" Max stuttered, Harry nodded. Harry had been hearing the basilisk talk through the walls for months now and could guess what kind of snake it was by the attacks. Despite knowing what the monster was and having tracked down the chamber's entrance, but he decided not to do anything with the information. Dumbledore was still around and Harry had decided that he'd leave him in charge of it. He was the headmaster of the school and the most powerful wizard in the world, he probably had a handle on the situation. Harry was just a fourth year and didn't want any part of Slytherin's Chamber, after all, who in their right mind would want to face a giant, deadly snake that can kill you by having a staring contest with it? But ever since Dumbledore left, Harry realized that he might have to take care of this little problem himself.

"Yes it's a basilisk, but I'll take care of it. We still have the Heir to worry about though, and while I handle the snake, you'll have to handle him. Got it." Max nodded his head affirmative, "Now are their any potions you have that can help you?" Harry questioned

Max got thoughtful, "I have a few in our room, they won't be that much help but they'll be better than nothing." He had two elixirs to improve reflexes and stamina for a time, if only he had more time he could have brewed something more helpful.

Harry nodded, "Good we'll go get those, I've gotta stop there and get some-" Harry was cut off

"Max, Harry? What are you guys doing here?" It was Cedric who, judging by what he was wearing, was walking up from the quidditch pitch. He had made the seeker spot on Hufflepuff and had put them in the number two spot this year, he had spent the majority of his free time practicing his flying skills.

Harry sighed and relayed the situation, no use lying. Everyone would know by tomorrow and Harry trusted Cedric not to turn them in.

Cedric looked horrified at what had happened to his sorta-friend (Shannon). While never really talking to her as much as Max did, he hung around Max enough to get to know her well enough.

"I'm coming." He said

"Uh, no you're not." Harry said factly and turned to leave, time was precious right now.

"You need all the help you can get and I'm second to you in defence Harry, I can help." Cedric pleaded

"Harry, let him come." Max said

Harry sighed and with his back turned to them he said, "This isn't some stupid dueling club, this is real world shit and you could die." He said seriously, "But if you want to come, fine. But go change into something less restrictive and meet me on the second floor." Harry left with Max following closely behind him.

"So what is it you needed to get?" Max asked as they entered their room Harry chose not to answer, preferring to just show Max rather than explain it. He pulled the green book that would reveal his secret lair.

When the bookshelf opened, Max gaped at him. When the hell had Harry made this?

"Stop staring, I'll explain later. Right now we need to focus."

"You're right, you're right." Max rummaged through his trunk, searching for the necessary potions. when he finally found them and turned back around, he had to stare. Harry was dressed in athletic shorts a chest plate made out of black dragonhide along with matching bracers and gauntlets. He had a rune covered sword strapped to his side and a wand holster on his ankle. Overall it was rather intimidating.

"Let's go." He cast an illusion over himself to make it appear that he was in his normal day cloths so that no one in the packed common room noticed anything was up when they snuck out.

They met Cedric on the second floor as they planned. Only a few teachers were out wandering the halls, but with Harry traveling in his cat form, it was easy to avoid them.

"So where is it?" Cedric asked

"Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom."

Both of the boys stared at Harry, "Why the hell is it there?" Max asked

"I guess it has access to the Hogwarts sewer system. It's how the basilisk gets around, through the pipes. This school was actually extremely advanced for it's time, having plumbing was unheard of evening in wizarding families back then." Harry said

"Yeah, thanks for the history lesson. Now can we get moving?" Max urged and rushed them down to the second floor girl's bathroom.

Upon entering, Harry immediately went over to the large circular sink in the middle of the bathroom and hissed a sound that sounded like complete english to him, but a terrifying hiss to Max and Cedric.

_~Open~_ Harry hissed

There was a rumbling sound, then the sinks began to move apart and sink into the floor, leaving a large open hole in the middle of the bathroom.

"So, who wants to jump into the dark, smelly hole where we know a deadly monster is waiting for us first?" Harry said cheerfully, Max needed no further prompting and jumped down the hole. He was closely followed by Harry and a reluctant Cedric who was trying to gather all his courage.

The hole turned into a slimey, winding slide that came out into a circular room that had hundreds of bones from dead rats and such covering the floor.

"That was fun." Harry said and cast a scourgify on his back to get the slime off, he did the same to Cedric and Max, "Let's move and remember, any sign of movement and you shut your eyes straight away. Let me take care of it." Harry lead them down the chamber only stopping briefly to admire the giant snake skin on the floor of one of the tunnels. They came to an intricate doorway covered in snakes, Harry hissed to get it open as well.

The door opened to reveal a wide open chamber covered in black marble. It was lit only by bleak torches so it was kinda hard to see the end of it. There were statues of snakeheads leading down to a much larger statue of what they could only guess to be Salazar Slytherin.

"Now that's slightly overkill with the sheer creepiness of it." Max said, "Although the statue looks kinda like a monkey." He said jokingly in attempt to lighten the mood, then he noticed the whole reason they came there lying motionless on the floor.

"Shannon!" Max yelled and sprinted through the puddles in order to reach her. He cradled her head in his lap and urged her to wake up. "Wake up. Don't be dead, please don't be dead. Shannon please wake up!" Max seemed to be on the verge of tears but Harry got to them and began to cast what looked like diagnostic spells.

"She's alive... But hey, that's odd." Harry had a puzzled frown on his face, "Physically, she's fine. But magically, she's slipping away. It's like she's being drained of energy." Harry began a chain of wand movements and a long latin chant under his breath in an attempt to break whatever spell she was under.

"She won't wake." A voice said from behind them. Harry spun around faster than Max or Cedric thought possible and shot eight different spells at higher velocity than they could keep track of. It was no use however.

The boy, whoever he was, didn't even move to dodge the spells. They just passed right through him as if he were a ghost.

"Ah, you must be Harry Potter. It's a pleasure to meet another parselmouth." The boy said completely unfazed, turning to Max he addressed him, "And you must be Maximus Boridius. I'm afraid I don't know who you are." He said this at Cedric, "You must excuse my manners, dear Shannon hasn't told me about you yet."

"You have you done to her!" Max yelled, "Put her back!"

"I am afraid I can't do that Maximus." The boy smirked, "You see, as She grows weaker, I grow stronger."

"And just who are you." Harry questioned calmly though his eyes were searching throughout the chamber in search of the basilisk.

"Excuse my manners once again, I am Tom Riddle."

"Riddle? I've never heard that name in any of the pureblood circles." Cedric said, everyone expected the Heir of Slytherin to be pureblood.

"Foolish boy!" Tom spat, "I care little for blood purity, seeing as I am a halfblood myself. But I am the true heir of Slytherin and the greatest sorcerer to ever live!"

"Uhh, no you're not." Max said, "Currently, Dumbledore is the greatest known sorcerer. I've never even heard of you."

Tom just smirked at them and took out Shannon's wand. He traced His name, TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in the air with flaming letters. Then with a swish of the wand, the letters rearranged themselves into I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

There was silence in the chamber, none of the fourth years were expecting that. "Well that's interesting." Harry said seeing as Max and Cedric seemed to be in a little bit of shock

"Interesting, that's all you have to say?" Tom mocked, "The greatest Dark Lord in history is about to kill you and all you have to say about it is interesting."

"No offence buddy, but you're not a Dark Lord. You're not even alive, but you're not dead either." Harry said, eyes catching a calculating gleam, "You're not a ghost either and it's not astrological projection, you couldn't pick up Shannon's wand if it were. You're something else entirely, a death echo of a sort. One that can interact with it's environment and drain the energy from someone. How curious."

"Enough! I am not some science experiment you can observe. You should show me some respect, some-"

"Shut up, I'm thinking." Harry respects no one, "But a death echo has to be tied to something that they spent a great deal of time with and you can't just drain the life of someone just like that. You need a ritual or a cursed object of some sort."

"Uh, Harry where are you going with this?" Max asked nervously

"That diary." Harry muttered to himself, "He's tied to that diary Shannon was writing in." Harry looked at Shannon's prone form, and lo 'n' behold, the diary was clutched tightly in her arms.

"ENOUGH!" Tom screamed, "Now you will die in this chamber, your bodies will stay here forever and you will-"

"Just call the snake." Harry interrupted, quite tired of this douchebag's constant monologue

Tom got red in the face and turned to the statue of Slytherin.

_~Speak to me, Slytherin! Greatest of the Hogwart's four!~_

"Remember, just as I said. Stay away while I fight the snake." Harry said to the two scared fourth years, "Don't even glance in my direction, no matter what you hear. Oh, and try and get that diary from Shannon." Harry calmly walked over to the slowly opening mouth of Salazar, his illusion around his armor and sword faded away causing Cedric and Tom to stare in surprise.

As soon as Harry began to see a snout appear from Salazar's mouth, he closed his eyes and began to feel that familiar flowing feeling that signaled magic was flowing through his body. It was another thing he learned while fighting Mariah. Harry had finally gotten good enough during their training sessions that he could hold his own against her for about thirty minutes straight before he tired out completely from the over exertion of his magic. Five months ago, their fights lasted seven minutes at a time, tops. And then Harry had a revelation that would improve his fighting skills to somewhere close to the level Mariah wanted him to be at.

There was always the problem of Harry overexerting himself when he used the technique of channeling magic into his muscles to make himself stronger and faster. He couldn't used too much magic without causing permanent damage to himself. So Harry couldn't improve any more than he already had unless he came up with a solution to the problem. So he did.

It took many hours, hell days even, spent in a meditative trance to achieve it but he had. Harry found a way to direct the magic flow in his body to such a degree, that he could expel any unwanted magical material in his body. It took time to do it, but Harry could now self cure himself of any curse cast on his person without a wand. He could also take all the used magic that went into his muscles and expel it out of his body and into the ambient magic floating around in the air. So now Harry could enhance his muscles as much as he wanted as long as he had the magic to do so. Unfortunately sending out so much used magic was bad for anything within the vicinity of Harry. He and Mariah put this skill to the test and nearly leveled a forest when Harry let off too much uncontrolled magic.

But this got Harry thinking, if he could expel magic in his body, why couldn't he take it in as well? When he tried it... it was like nothing else he had ever experienced. Harry could feel all ambient magic floating around him. It was like feeling vibrations in the air. And when the ambient magic was disturbed by living beings, Harry could feel it. Harry could feel the disturbance an ant made when it moved, and through this he could tell where the ant is without looking at it. The only problem about this is that it took a shitton of concentration and you could loose youself to your mind when you could sense everything around you. If you went to far, you could overload your brain with information. This almost happened to Harry and he was only save by Max shaking him awake from his trance. But as long as Harry didn't go too far, he could safely sense anything with his eyes closed. Like say an angery, half crazy basilisk that was being ordered to kill him.

_~Kill the boy in front of you!~_ Tom hissed

"This should be fun." Harry said to himself before rolling to the side to barely avoid the first strike from the massive snake. That snake was fast as fuck!

To Harry's senses, the snake was enormous, sixty feet long and as wide as he was tall. Harry unsheathed his sword and charged the basilisk in a blur of speed. His prototype, blood fused sword (prototype since Mariah broke the first one he bought) was about to be put to and insane first test and he was looking forward to it. Harry slashed at the side of the snake but much to his disappointment, his sword only left a thin line wound. A paper cut. The scales were probably as hard as titanium. Great.

Harry was forced to jump and do a flip in the air to avoid the tail. He managed it... mostly. The tail managed to catch his ankle as he came down. This unfortunately had the effect to send him off course and into one of the snake statues. Now Harry may be a bit more durable when channeling his magic throughout his body and he had taken much harder hits from Mariah, but smashing your head on a marble statue hurts no matter how you do it.

"Fuck that hurt." Harry rubbed the bleeding gash in his forehead, he didn't have time to inspect how bad it was. Giant snake out for his blood and all. The snake kept on making incoherent sentences and sprouting off really strange sounding insults at him. So the snake was crazy, also a bad thing.

Ok so kill it with a sword was out for now. Time for plan B.

Taking out his wand, while dodging the snake and trying to lead it as far away from his friends as possible, Harry cast a spell (while running away) that Max would recognize. A barely visible gold thread shot out of Harry's wand and began winding it's way around the snake. It had little effect. You can't really hogtie a snake after all. So Harry went for a different method, goudge out it's eyes.

Harry's thread lashed itself out like a whip at the snakes eyes turning them into a bloody mess. The snake screeched in pain and started to flail around wildly. It hit the ceiling a few times causing rocks to fall all over the cavern. Max was almost crushed by a particularly large one.

"Harry, watch it!" Max yelled and ducked a dark purple curse shot at him by the non-corporal Tom. He was lucky he had a reflex enhancing elixir in his trunk, else he and Cedric would be toast. Tom was a good duelist, not to mention impossible to hit.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'll try and kill the fucking huge snake in a safer, non destructive manner!" Harry shouted back sarcastically and jumped over the snake's tail.

Harry was sure that the snake could no longer use it's killing gaze, Harry opened his eyes, knowing it was safe to take a gander at the giant beast. It was huge, at least six tons of pure muscle. It was one thing to feel it in a sixth sense sort of way, it was something else entirely to see it with his own eyes. It was colored a dark green color and had sharp spines traveling up it's back. The snake was starting to regain it's senses over the pain of losing it's eyes and started to smell Harry out. Not good. Harry decided to end it now and go in for the kill. The only vulnerable spot left on the snake was it's mouth. It's mouth however, was full of sharp, poisonous, dragon like teeth. Shit, this was a stupid idea.

Pocketing his wand, Harry unsheathed his sword and got himself in a fighting position. Feet spread a shoulder's width apart, all muscles relaxed, sword gripped in both hands in front of him ready to strike.

The basilisk seemed to have caught his scent and came at him screeching madly. Harry readied himself for the inevitable, all his instincts were telling him to get the hell out of the way but he ignored them and focused on what he was doing. The basilisk reared back and struck at him with lightning speed, Harry had a split second to react but it was enough. Just as the snake was about to take a bite out of him, Harry lashed out into the roof of it's mouth and drove his sword into its brain with all the strength of a troll. The basilisk however, was stronger and Harry was pounded into the ground by the snake's massive body.

"Ugh!" Harry grunted, yep he definitely just broke a rib or two. He could ignore the pain for now, but he'd have to fix his ribs eventually. He glanced at the basilisk lying next to him, it's body was twitching but it was dead. He let out a relieved sigh.

Harry then noticed a burning sensation on his arm. He closed his eyes, praying that it wasn't what he thought it was. But it was. Harry had punctured the venom sacks when he made the killing blow and now the venom it was dripping down his sword and onto his arm. Not good!

"Harry! I got the diary!" Max yelled after he slid over the wet floor (Cedric was shielding him from Tom's spells when he did) to Shannon's form, "What do I do with it?!"

"Toss it to me now!" Harry had an idea about what kind of magic went into making that diary, and the only way to destroy it would be to have something destructive enough to damage a soul. Fortunately or unfortunately, whichever way you looked at it, Harry had such a substance dripping down his arm.

Max threw the diary like a frisbee straight to Harry. Harry caught it and stabbed it down on one of the lower bottom fangs.

"No!" Was all the corporal Tom had to make out before he exploded into a bright white light.

Tom's scream echoed around the chamber and all was silent until that was interrupted by Shannon sitting bolt up and breathing heavily.

"Shannon you're awake!" Max said excitedly. She was not so excited, she looked around to dark creep chamber, over at Harry standing next to the giant dead snake, then back to Max before fainting and hitting her head hard on the marble floor.

"Oh shit. Uh Harry, got any healing spells"

"We don't have time to heal her now, we need to get out." Harry said though it came out as a low growl as Harry tried to ignor the pain from his ribs, the multiple scrapes on his body, and the basilisk venom burning through his skin. The poison was probably already in his blood stream, he had under two minutes to live. Super. "Quickly, grab her and come over here, I'm transporting us out."

Max grabbed Shannon and rushed over to Harry who was being supported by Cedric. Max had no idea how Harry was going to get them out of there, he looked half dead himself. Harry closed his eyes and before Max knew what was happening, they sank into their shadows without a sound. Max's yelped in surprise as darkness and the feeling of traveling insanely fast but not moving at all assaulted his senses. It was hard to describe.

Before they knew it, they appeared... In the headmaster's office? Max had never been here and only had it described to him by the Weasly Twins. It was exactly as they said it was, silver and gold doodads and doohickeys sat on the large desk in the room, paintings of past headmasters lined all the walls of the office, old leather books covered the shelves, and a golden bird perch sat next to the desk.

"Harry, why did you bring us here?" Max asked, "We need to get you and Shannon to the hospital wing. And Cedric you had that nasty gash on your shoulder."

"I say, how did you all get in?" One of the paintings exclaimed, they ignored him.

Harry didn't respond to Max's plead. Hunched over in pain, he waddled over to a cabinet on the far side of the room and started rummaging through it. There was only one theoretical cure to basilisk venom, but he didn't have any on hand and they had to be fresh.

He gave a little "Haha!" when he finally found what he was looking for. A box of lemon drops.

"Fawkes! Come and get it!" Harry shook the box a few times for good measure. He honestly had no idea if this would work, but it was his only shot.

Gods must be watching over him, because the majestic fire bird flamed into existence with a squawk.

"Can't believe that worked." Harry mutttered to himself.

Fawkes took in Harry's state and trilled in worry. Why was the nice boy who got him lemon drops out of Albus' warded cabinet hurt so badly?

"Yeah I know, I look like shit. And I'm probably going to die in a minute."

Fawkes chirped back a reply.

"Wait Harry, You're dying!" Max said in panic, Cedric didn't know what to say so he didn't.

Harry ignored Max, "Basilisk venom seeped through my skin, do you think you can heal it?"

Fawkes chirped again.

"You can understand the bird?" Cedric asked dumbly

Fawkes seemed to glare at the Hufflepuff.

"The bird has a name and doesn't take well to people who don't use it." Harry said, probably saving Cedric's ass from being roasted, "Now back to business, all I need is a couple drops and I'll be fine."

Chirp.

Harry sighed, "Yes you can have the entire box of lemon drops." that got Fawkes moving and he immeadiently tilted his head over Harry's arm and began to cry on it. Steam came off his skin and he sighed in relief. Harry rubbed the tears on his entire arm, sweet releif. His arm had been on fire.

"Whoah, Harry. You just got healed by a pheonix." Max said in awe, "Do you know how rare that is?"

"I don't know, very?" He didn't research trivial things like this

"Probably only around a hundred have been recorded in history."

"Cool, now I've gotta just heal my broken ribs." Harry took his wand out and prepared for the pain, He ran his wand down the break and muttered the incantation. His ribs snapped back together with a crack. "Sonofa Bitch that hurt!" Harry yelped, that was one of the few healing spells he knew. It healed the break instantly, only bad thing is that it forced you to feel all the pain the healing process would cause in a single moment.

"Holy shoot Harry, slow down for a second!" Cedric exclaimed, "Can you please tell us what the fudge is going on? Why the heck did you take us here?"

"Ok first off," Harry said, "if you ever use those stupid replacements for swear words again, I'll lynch you. And secondly, if you haven't heard, I was about to die and didn't want to. So I came to the only place where I thought I could be saved. Fawkes here loves lemon drops more than Dumbledore, inorder to get him to come I need to use some bait."

The pheonix boped Harry on the back of the head with his wing.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Harry tossed the pheonix his prize box. The fire bird caught it in his talons before flameing away with a trill goodbye.

"How are you on good terms with Dumbledore's pheonix?" Max wondered

"I'm not going to tell you, that's for me to know and for you to never to find out."

The four of them fell into silence (the unconcious Shannon had no choice).

Seeing as no one was going to talk, Cedric stepped up to the plate, "Well, now what?"

"I'm not quite sure." Harry said, "I guess one of us has to go tell McGonagall that we went down the Chamber of Secrets, chatted with the teenage Voldemort, killed the thousand year old basilisk, saved Shannon, and got healed by a pheonix."

"Not it." Max said

"I'm not going to either." Cedric said, the Gryffindor Head of House scared him.

Both boys looked to Harry, "I just got poisoned and had to face the basilisk. Fuck no am I going to deal with McGonagall, it's between you two."

"Rock, Paper, Sissors?" Max offfered

"... Sure."

**AN:/ Ok, here's chapter 11 in my story. Shit it took me a while to type this one but i took some time off in december for the holidays. I have officially negated the Remus/Tonks relationship, it will not happen. Nor will there be a Harry/Tonks the pairing is Fleur/Harry and it will stay that way. This will be the last time i update for a while due to the fact that with the start of the new semester, i wont have a free period and alone time with access to a computer. I have a life and like to go out and live it so I will only type when i'm bored and have time, I just do this for fun remember. Anyway since you wont hear from me for a while, I decided to write a longer chapter, the longest I've done so far. Anyway, write lots of reviews, good or bad i don't care as long as I get some sort of response. It's late, i'm going to bed. **

**ericlau99**


	12. Chapter 12

"Man, this sucks." Max said dejectedly as he and Harry watched the arguing Mother and Daughter. The normally happy Foursythe family was in the middle of a heated argument.

"Mom, please don't do this!" Shannon pleaded

"I'm sorry Shannon but the decision has been made."

"But all my friends are here! And so is Max, you're not making him leave."

"Max may be under our care, but he's spent the last summer working and earning his keep under Mr. Lupin. Your father and I have decided to let him make his own decisions. And I'm sure that you will make many new friends at Beauxbatons."

Shannon switched tactics and went to her father, "Daddy please, don't make me go."

It broke Augie's heart to see his beloved daughter and wife fight, he normally gave Shannon anything she wished but in this case, he agreed with his wife. "Shannon, baby, your safety is the most important thing to us and it's obvious that you're not safe here."

"This could have happened to anyone!" Shannon argued, grasping at straws

"But it happened to you!" Selean said, "If Harry and Max hadn't gone after you, who knows what could have happened?"

"But the schools safe now, and Dumbledore's back! There's no way I can get hurt now."

"And we're not willing to take that chance. You're going to Beauxbatons at the start of next year and that's final." Selean said with finality, ending the argument.

Shannon's shoulders slumped in defeat. She walked over to where Harry and Max were standing in the corridors outside the Headmaster's office.

Max stayed silent. What could he say? His oldest friend was being forced to move to a school hundreds of miles away. No matter which way you looked at it, this sucked.

Shannon threw her arms around Max's neck in a tight hug, "Thank you, for saving me. I forgot to say that before." She said teary eyed.

"Shay, I... Uhhh, you don't have to thank me for anything. You know I'd do anything for you." Max said, "As a matter of fact, if you really want to have a friend at Beauxbatons, then I'll go with you."

Shannon gave him a kiss on the cheek, turning him a shade of Weasley Red. "That's so sweet of you Max, and I would love it if you came with me. But your entire life is here and I can tell that you don't want to leave. I couldn't just make you give all that up." She released him from the hug and turned to Harry who was looking away from the cushy moment awkwardly.

"You're not going to hug me are you?" Harry said sarcastically

Shannon smirked as she suddenly hugged the surprised Harry.

"Thank you for killing the giant, thousand year old Basilisk for me Harry." She said teasingly. Harry stood stiff, the only person he could remember ever giving him a hug is Remus. She released him and smiled happily at his scowling face, it was nice to make fun of him for a change.

Harry scoffed, "Are you kidding me? I would have killed it eventually, basilisk parts are extremely expensive and I can make a fortune off of them." He said, effectively ruining the moment.

Max's eyes went glassy at the thought of what he could do with all those basilisk parts. "Harry, don't you dare sell that basilisk corpse. I'll do anything if you let me have it." When Max saw Harry's smirk, he rephrased his plea, "Okay, not anything you asshole."

Harry shrugged, "It's yours as long as you gut it and remove it's skin. Oh, and leave the head intact. I'm going to get it taxidermied and animated." He said gleefully, "It'll look great over my mantle."

"You sir, are very weird." Max said as they began to walk down to the Great Hall for lunch, "Now let's get off disturbing subjects, when's your next game?" His question directed at Harry, Shannon rolled her eyes at the question. No matter how smart the boy was, it seemed that all that really mattered was quidditch.

"We play USA." Harry said not worried, "They're alright but quidditch has never really been their thing. They've always been more invested in non-magical sports."

"Wait, even wizards play muggle sports?"

"Duh, I've told you I played football in America before."

"Well, that's you. And you're... uhh... you. You're not the typical wizard Harry." Max said

"Plenty of wizards play muggle sports, " Harry defended, "I had two wizards on my football team when I was nine. Just because you have magic doesn't mean you have to do only magic things. Magical America is way more with the twentieth century than any other country."

"What do you mean by that?" Shannon asked confused

"What I mean is that Americans don't really distinguish from Magic to Muggle. Some of the largest American Corporations are run by wizards, they're really integrated into the muggle world in the States. Which is, I suppose, their downfall." Harry lectured

"Their downfall?" Max asked confused, "But you always say that the muggles are so much more advanced than us, wouldn't being super integrated be good?"

"It can be." Harry said, "But there are always drawbacks to everything. For America, they focused on both a Magical Education and a Muggle Education. So their focuses were split. They could go into a career in the muggle or the wizarding world. Hogwarts is the best Wizarding School in the world, but we completely overlook the muggle aspects of education. Essentially, almost the entire British Magical community has the same education as an eleven year old muggle would."

Seeing the still confused looks on his friend's faces Harry elaborated even more. "It's good that America focused on both a Magic and Muggle education, but there's just not enough time for you to have a complete education in both aspects. This is why the British Isles have the most powerful magical community. "

"Oh." Max said finally with comprehension, "That makes sense, I mean I'm over worked enough as it is with all the classes I'm taking now. I would never be able to take muggle courses along with them."

"What's football?" Shannon asked confused at the muggle term she heard at the beginning of Harry's rant.

"I'll take you to a game once we're out of school. I've never been to it but I hear watching the Super Bowl at the actual stadium is awesome." Normally, attending any event with Max and Shannon was annoying. But Harry was happy to share his favorite non-magic sport with his friends.

"What's so special about a bowl and why do people watch it?"

* * *

><p>Max gave an appreciative whistle, "Dude, that is one big ass snake."<p>

"Yeah, you said that already." Harry said annoyed

"Can you blame me? It's a fucking gigantic snake!" Max exclaimed loudly, his voice echoing around the chamber, "I never got a real chance to take a good look at it. How in the world did you stab it through the mouth?"

Harry fingered the acid like burn on his right forearm, Fawkes may have been able to stop the poison from killing him, but the damage was already too extensive to not leave a scar. At least it didn't do enough damage to impair his arm at all. Coach would have been pissed if he had permanently damaged anything.

"Not easily, I'll tell you that." Harry said darkly, "Now would you stop gaping at the effing thing, you're going to hate it by the end of the school year. It's going to take you weeks to finish gutting it."

Max shuddered, he was in for a long couple of weeks. All his free time was going to have to be spent working on snakey. But the thought of what he could do with all those potions ingredients made him shiver in delight. It was just one of those cases where the pros outweighed the cons.

"I'm going to go explore." Harry said and walked off to a random side entrance.

"Wait!" Max called after him, "How am I supposed to cut through the skin! Your sword couldn't even do that!"

"Figure it out!" Harry called over his shoulder before disappearing into the ancient dark tunnels.

Max sighed at his best friend's unhelpfulness. He glared at the gigantic carcass, trying to come up with a good way to cut through the skin.

He got nothing.

Harry walked aimlessly through the chamber, trying to decide it's purpose other than being a basilisk playground. There had to be some other purpose, right? Slytherin wouldn't build a dark scary chamber just to keep his big ass pet in, there had to be some other purpose to the chamber. Besides, snakes would rather have a nice, sunny, warm rock as a home rather than a dark, depressing chamber.

Finally, Harry came to the end of the tunnel. There was nothing there but a flat wall. Knowing that there was more to it than just an end to the tunnel (why have a tunnel that leads nowhere?), Harry cast a few detection spells at the wall which came up positive for magical properties.

Taking a wild guess at how to open the door, Harry pulled the unlit torch holder beside him. Lo n' behold, the wall started sliding up revealing an extremely dark room behind it. Seems Slytherin and Harry shared a love for cliche entrances.

Harry lit his wand with a simple lumos spell before walking in. It appeared to be a ritual chamber of a sorts and time had not been kind to it. Cobwebs covered the floor and ceiling, what looked like a wooden bookshelf was rotting in the corner, and it smelled like decaying flesh.

The ceiling was a good thirteen feet high with marble pillars supporting it. Harry cast a few quick cleaning and lighting charms around the room. With the cobwebs and dust removed, he could see runes carved into the walls and floor. In the center of the room was a ritual circle carved perfectly into the marble slab that made up the floor. In the far corner of the room was a desk that seemed to be in relatively good shape. Although the desk wasn't that interesting, the skeleton sitting in the chair behind it certainly was.

Harry quickly walked over to the remains. The flesh had long rotted away from the bones and all that was left was a cobweb covered skeleton. A scroll was clenched tightly by the skeleton and was, oddly enough, in fine condition. Must have some preservation charms added to it or something.

Harry carefully pried the scroll from the skeleton's hand, accidentally breaking the hand off in the process (whoops), before unrolling it and starting to read. It was written in Latin and while Harry couldn't speak it fluently, he knew enough to (slowly) read through the missive:

I have made many mistakes in my life. Too many to count really. What an odd way to write out one's last words. But I guess that the poison is taking it's toll and I may be a bit loopy. Loopier than Godric on All Hallows Eve when he's had too much wine. I am rambling aren't I? Oh well, old age tends to do that to you. And being 121 years of age is in the upper spectrum. Once again I find myself rambling. Bear with me, I do have important things to write about. First off, I am Salazar Slytherin. Greatest of my family, one of the most powerful warlocks in modern times, yada yada yada, many great deeds and all that. Anyway I am currently being poisoned to death thanks to my heir, the blasted cunt wanted to be the lord of the family so he poisoned my wine skin. There's not enough time to make a cure and I've actually grown rather bored of living. Death sounds rather inviting at the moment. Anyway I wanted to leave something behind for whoever finds my body, to let them know who the important dead bastard they stumbled upon in my chamber was. I am the last of the founders and the last to know all of Hogwart's secrets. So if you would do the honor of bringing whatever is left of me to the seventh floor and walk to the very end of the corridor, you will find one of Hogwart's greatest secrets and a personal treasure of my own.

I'm going to die now, hopefully the afterlife is more exciting than the first one.

"What the fuck?" Harry said to himself, he found the body of one of the greatest wizards to ever walk the earth... Now what? He was supposed to follow the dead man's last wishes and bring his bones to somewhere else in the castle? Didn't sound very fun, but the words 'Hogwart's greatest secret' and 'personal treasure' sounded rather appealing.

Harry conjured a sack and stuffed Salazar's bones in it before shadow traveling to the seventh floor.

Shadow travel was something that Mariah showed him how to do. It was shit hard to do and was tiring as hell. Harry could probably do it four times a day but then pass out after the fourth. You had to know exactly where the shadow you were traveling to was, else you may get lost or hit a dead end. It was damn useful, seeing as how it was one of the few ways that someone could travel through Hogwart's wards. Which is why it's lucky that only two people on earth know how to do it, else Voldemort would have won the war a long time ago.

Harry appeared in the shadow of a suit of armor on the seventh floor without a sound. The corridor was empty seeing as how everyone was outside enjoying the nice weather. Walking down the corridor with the sack of bones floating behind him, He came to the dead end with the portrait of Barnabas Barby trying to teach trolls to dance.

There was basically nothing on the seventh floor. Just a bathroom and a few unused broom cupboards. Which is why Harry was confused as to what to do now.

And if sensing Harry's confusion, Salazar's bones started rattling in their sack. The wall in front of him slowly carved itself a doorway before opening on it's own, revealing a dimly lit room behind it.

Harry raised an eyebrow. Cool.

He walked in to see mosaics covering the walls and animated stained glass illuminating the room. The stained glass showed scenes of Hogwarts throughout it's lifetime, starting from a low stone hut and transforming into the large castle that it was today. Another window depicted Hogwarts under siege from an army consisting of wizards, trolls, and dragons. The mosaic depicted the four founders in all their glory standing on an island in the black lake, their beloved castle behind them. Each founder wore their respected colors and looked rather regal in appearance.

What drew Harry's attention the most was the three large, marble caskets lying silent at the center of the room. Harry didn't have to guess as to whom lies within. It was rather obvious. This was the Hogwarts Founders' burial chamber. Salazar's last wish was to be buried with his fellow founders.

One would expect Harry to be awed and amazed to probably be one of the few people to ever be allowed entry to the Founder's burial chamber. But, in all honesty, he could care less. He was standing in a magical tomb with four dead people. Whoop-dee-doo. Where's Salazar's Treasure?

As if reacting to his thoughts, a silvery substance began to flow along the floor like liquid silver. The silver began to build up next to the far left casket and form into an identical tomb as the others, becoming marble like when it stopped forming.

"Goddammit, I am sick of this shit!" Harry cussed, "Can't Slytherin have just left a note or something saying 'burn my body and there is treasure in my top desk drawer'?" Harry said irritably but regardless of all this pointless magical shit, he floated Salazar's bones over to the casket where the burial chamber's own magic took control and lowered the corpse inside.

Silver flowed over the casket, sealing Salazar's bones for ever. And then, everything disappeared. The mosaics, windows, and caskets vanished leaving a plain marble room behind.

"What the hell?" Harry said looking around for the door which had also vanished, "What happened to the room?" He asked aloud to himself, he honestly wasn't expecting an answer. But one came.

"The room simply reverted to it's simplest form, for you haven't asked anything of it yet."

Harry spun around to come face to canvas with a painting of a reales looking woman clothed in a silken, green and silver dress fit for a princess. She had high cheekbones and her black hair was held in a braid that fell down to her waist. She was kinda hot in that aristocrat sorta way. She regarded Harry suspiciously with her dark blue eyes.

"Heh?" Harry answered intelligently

The painting... woman... whatever you want to consider it, rolled her eyes at him. "You have not asked anything of the Room of Requirement, therefore it hasn't changed into anything yet."

Harry's brain caught up to what was happening. "Wait, who are you? Room of what now? Why are you here? What happened to-" Harry cut himself off as he realized he sounded like Maximus. Not a good thought.

"Be quiet you idiot boy." The painting scolded him in motherly fashion, "I am Astrid Slytherin, mother of the impudent man whose bones you just buried."

"You're Salazar Slytherin's mother?" Harry asked bewildered

She glared at him, "Yes, now shut up you insolent child. You have awakened me from my sleep within the Room of Requirement when the room revealed the burial chamber to you. But now that my son is within his casket, the room, as I have already told you, has reverted to it's simplest form with the exception of me." She said the last part with some annoyance

"My 'beloved' son put me in here to, how did he put it? 'Help guide the future generations of mages from within Hogwart's most useful room.'" She said with disgust, "He just didn't want me around the castle, thought I made him seem less powerful to his underlings." She snorted here, "Anyway, my son enchanted me asleep so that I would wake after his body is put to rest so that a Slytherin presence may always be at Hogwarts and so I may help guide the generations of magic users into future glory. Speaking of which how long have I been asleep for? A decade or two?"

Harry ignored her question (he was still unbelieving of what was happening, but went along with it anyways) and posed one of his own, "What does the Room of Requirement do?"

"Are you deliberately slow boy? The room gives you whatever you require. Say you need a quiet place to think, the room will morph itself to fit your needs. The Room of Requirement can basically fulfill any requirement you want. Now what year is it?!" She said impatiently

Harry let that process for a moment, "Anything?" He questioned Astrid whom nodded her head affirmative. He closed his eyes and thought really hard about what he wanted most in the world at that moment. He opened his eyes a few seconds later and was rewarded with nothing.

"It didn't work." He said disappointedly

"Well what did you ask for? And for Terim's sake tell me what bloody year it is!" She yelled at him.

Harry didn't know or care who Terim was, probably some pagan god or something along those lines. He did care about; "A Big Mac." though.

"A what?" Astrid asked not mad about Harry ignoring her but honestly confused.

"It's a muggle food that I've been craving." Seriously, it was like an American Thanksgiving every day at Hogwarts. There was more to food than chicken, mash potatoes, and gravy. Most purebloods had never heard of a french fry, let alone, tried one in their life. It was sad really, how secluded the wizarding world was from the rest of the world.

Astrid seemed miffed that he wished for a muggle food of all things. "Food's one of the few things the room can't do. But everything else is fair game."

Factoring that bit of information in, Harry wished for something different. And before his eyes, the room morphed into an exact replica of his secret room behind his book case. The only difference was that the book shelves were filled with many different books.

"No fucking way." Harry said amazed, he pulled a book on Battle Transfiguration and started leafing through it.

"Yes yes it's all very magical and amazing." Astrid said irritably, "Now tell me what year it is!" She demanded, Harry was beginning to understand why Salazar locked her in a burial chamber, She is not a pleasant person.

"Ask me nicely and I'll think about it." Harry said without looking up from his book

She huffed in anger, "Can you PLEASE tell me what year it is?"

Harry ignored her again, "Salazar's note said something about a personal treasure for whoever brought his body back."

She stared at him, silent for once (thank God). "He would be referring to the Chintimoni Crystal behind my portrait." She finally answered

Harry's head snapped up from his book. A fucking Chintimoni Crystal! They were supposed to have all been destroyed years ago! Crystals found by the Chintimoni Tribe in Africa were said to be able absorb endless amounts of energy from earth's leylines. Wars had been started over them, wars had been ended by them. Merlin's staff was even said to have had a crystal on the head of it. They were all rounded up by one of the first wizard councils where they were somehow destroyed.

"Bullshit." Harry said

Astrid gave him a smug smirk before her portrait flipped open revealing a pulsating, blue, unevenly cut crystal about the size of his pinki. Holy crap it really was a Chintimoni Crystal, he'd seen drawings in books. Harry numbly walked towards it and gently lifted it up of the pedestal it rested on. It was warm to the touch

"Amazing isn't it? How so much power can be stored in such a small thing." Astrid said, Harry only nodded his head in agreement.

Harry snapped out of his trance and pocketed the crystal, He couldn't stay here forever after all. God knows what Max had gotten up to in his absence plus he wanted to brainstorm what he could do with the crystal. He walked to the shadow the desk chair created.

"It's 2011." He said as he slipped into a shadow

"2011! But it's been over a millenni-" Harry didn't hear the rest as he was already gone.

Harry appeared in the shadow of one of the many alcoves in the chamber. He took a few steps forward before falling to one knee in exhaustion. Shadow traveling twice in half an hour is now a good idea. He took a few deep breaths before shakily getting up.

His eyes searched the chamber for Max before he spotted him near the tail (do snakes have tails?) of the Basilisk.

"Maximus we can do this tomorrow, I've gotta-" He cut himself off at the sight before him. Max's arm was shoulder deep in the snake's asshole while Max himself stared at Harry in a deer in headlights fashion.

"Why the fuck are you fingering the snake?"

Max quickly pulled his arm out and rubbed the back of his head (thankfully not with the hand that was in the snake's ass). "Well… I couldn't cut the hide, and there are only two other access points. One of them is full of sharp poisonous fangs and the other… well, I chose the one that doesn't end in death."

Harry stared at him for a few seconds before walking out of the chamber. "I'm telling Shannon you fingered her would be killer's pet."

Max scrambled after him begging him not to.

* * *

><p>Harry smirked at the amazed look on Max's face.<p>

"So this has just been here this whole time?" Max asked unable to look away from the burger in front of him.

"Yep, it's amazing that no one ever noticed a McDonalds was right across the street from the Leaky Cauldron." It had been two days since school let out and Harry decide to finally get the food he's been craving for months, incidentally Max and Cedric came along for the ride.

"How have I never eaten here before?" Cedric asked through a mouthful of fries

Harry took a big bite of his Big Mac before answering, "Most people raised in the British Wizarding World have house elves to cook for them or have gotten so used to Hogwart's cooking that that is all they want to eat themselves."

"Well I am officially changing my opinion of the Hogwarts menu. Some variety would be nice." Max said now on his twelfth chicken nugget

Cedric took a long sip of his coke savoring the fizzy taste,"I forgot to ask by the way, how did Shannon take the move to France?"

Max sighed, "As well as you could expect. She's being forced to move away from everything she's know, she's pretty pissed off… and sad, but she's mostly just pissed off."

Cedric clapped him on the shoulder, "At least you didn't have to go with them."

"Yeah what a shame that would be." Harry snarked

"Shut up, you'll miss her too." Max shot back

"I'll miss all the dumb shit you do around her but other than that, nah." Harry took another bite

"Uh guys, those girls over there keep looking at us." Cedric pointed out

Harry and Max glanced over in the direction that Cedric pointed out, five relatively good looking muggle girls were giggling and pointing in their direction.

Harry hated giggling girls, "Let's leave before they get the confidence to try and talk to us." Harry and Max got up and walked out the door, Cedric stayed behind and walked to the muggle teens.

"So... you ladies like food?" All the girls started giggling uncontrollably

"CEDRIC!" Harry's voice yelled from outside

"Coming." Cedric left the uncontrollably laughing girls behind

"-so I was thinking about doing the same thing so I can just get some extra cash." Cedric heard Max as he approached

"Some potions go bad in a few days though, you'd have to almost be constantly brewing to refill your stock."

"What we talking about?" Cedric asked

"Maximus here, wants to start brewing potions in bulk so he can sell them for a heavy profit." Harry said

"It's not a bad idea." Max defended, "I did the same thing when Ravenclaw won the Quidditch Cup and we had that party. I sold some of the intense cheering potions, a few sense enhancing draughts, and a lot of contraceptive potions."

"Contraceptive potions?" Cedric asked disbelievingly

"You're basically a magical drug dealer." Harry commented

"I'm selling the potions that are legal and proven not to have any additional side effects." Max defended, "I'm not going to sell kids potions that can get them addicted, I do have some moral code."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Cedric said as he tapped the correct bricks with his wand to gain entrance to Diagon Alley, "How much profit did you make anyway?"

Max started to do the math in his head, "I bought most of the ingredients from this place in China, they got super cheap ingredients while still being in relatively good quality, and I spent around thirty galleons I think. I made eighty-four galleons and thirteen sickles, so a lot of profit."

Cedric was gaping at him while Harry looked at him like he was a moron, "A lot of profit? Thats over a hundred percent mark-up, I've just lost any reservations I've had. You can count me in."

"Me too. Cedric added, "My Dad said that I can start working at Marauders, He's wanted me to get a summer job for a while now. As long as Mr. Lupin is ok with it, I'll be around you guys all the time."

"Great more people in my home." Harry muttered

"Awesome!" Max said excitedly, "Harry can help out with the start up funds while Cedric, you can help me with the brewing. Hey! Maybe we can even get some house elves so that we don't have to constantly be brewing. Harry do you think you can enchant a couple cauldrons with preservation charms? That way we can- Uh Harry? Where'd ya go?" Max asked as he noticed that his best friend was no longer with them. Cedric too noticed Harry's absence and was looking for him.

Max spotted Harry's messy mop of hair in a crowd of people, which was odd because Harry hated people. Everyone was crowded around a bulletin board and were all looking around worriedly.

"Harry what's going on?" Max asked and then noticed Harry's fists were clenched. He had a look on his face that Max had never seen before, He looked mad. Madder than Max had ever seen him, even when the Weasley Twins blew the whistle about his parseltongue secret. His muscles were tensed, like Harry was about to hit someone. Max looked to what Harry's eyes were locked on. It was a poster of a wizard laughing maniacally, if it wasn't for the crazy look about the guy, Max would have thought he was a decent looking bloke. With shoulder length black hair, deep blue eyes, a neatly trimmed goatee, and laugh lines around his mouth. On the bottom of the poster it read:

**_Have You Seen This Wizard?_**

**_Sirius Black_**

Crap, a Death Eater had escaped Azkaban! Something no wizard had ever done before. This was bad news, for everyone. What Max didn't understand was why Harry seemed so rattled about it.

"Harry, what-" Max's question was cut off by Harry tearing the poster off the board before storming off down Knockturn Alley. People were getting out of his way as if he had some sort of aura around him that radiated 'Fuck Off'.

"Max! What's wrong with Harry? Why did he just storm off like that?" Cedric asked as he ran up to Max.

"I don't know, I've never seen him that angry before." Max said worried, "He probably went to Marauder's, let's go after him!"

The two of them rushed down after their friend and arrived just in time to see Harry shadow travel away. Remus was at the bar looking down at the poster, Harry had no doubt slapped down in front of him, in shock.

"Remus, what happened?" Max asked tentatively

Remus looked at the two of them, Max would never forget that look. The only way to describe it was 'intense'. His eyes looked haunted, every scar and wrinkle on his face was pronounced, and the smile that usually graced his face was nowhere in sight. He motioned the two of them into a corner booth.

"Alfred! Man the bar." Remus shouted into the kitchen and then sat down in the booth with them.

"What has Harry told you about the night his parents were attacked?" Remus asked not bothering with small talk.

Max and Cedric looked at each other, "He told me what happened but nothing that involves Sirius Black." Max answered

"He's told me nothing, just that his father died and his mother is in Mungos." Cedric said

Remus stared blankly into space as he answered them, "It all started during the war, I won't go into detail but the odds weren't going in our favor. And one day James, Harry's father, decided to take Lily, Harry's mother, and Harry and go into hiding. I don't know why, I was really sudden and unexpected of James. He and Lily were fighters by nature, they were two of our best. It was odd that they packed up and left, it was really uncharacteristic of them now that I think of it. They would never run away from a fight." Remus paused for a second before continuing, "Lily was a prodigy in charms, she was nearly on Flitwick's level at the time. And to protect themselves, they decide to perform the Fidelius Charm. Do you two know what that is?"

Cedric and Max both shook their heads.

"The Fidelius Charm is an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find unless, of course, the Secret Keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the Secret Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who himself could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting room window. Unfortunately, their Secret Keeper spoke. Sirius Black." Remus said darkly

"Wait, so Sirius Black was the Potter's Secret Keeper?" Max asked unbelievingly

"Yes and, remains to this day, Harry's Godfather." Remus said effectively shocking the duo, "We were best friends, the four of us. James, Me, Sirius, and Peter Pettigrew." He said with a fond smile

"Who is Peter Pettigrew?" Cedric asked

Remus' expression turned bleak, "Peter Pettigrew is… was one of my closest friends. The four of us made up the Marauders, our little group. We were the biggest pranksters or trouble makers you would have ever met. Inseparable we were, even when they found out about my condition they treated me no different. They even tried to find a way to spend the full moon with me." Remus ended with a fond smile before turning back to the bleak expression.

"After the Potters had been attacked, Peter went after Sirius. Peter found him and cornered him on a muggle street. Peter was never the best wizard, he wasn't terrible but he was nowhere near Sirius' level. So it isn't surprising that Sirius is the only one who left that street. All they found of Peter was a finger. Thirteen muggles were killed in the process and Sirius was carted off to Azkaban. I arrived just as they were putting the chains on his wrists. He wouldn't stop laughing… All he did was laugh, even as he was put in chains all he did was laugh… That laughter is all I can remember that day." Remus said haunted

Max didn't know what to say, Cedric wasn't much better. It was one of the saddest things they'd ever heard.

"So that's why Harry stormed off. The man that basically is responsible for the attack on his parents escaped from prison." Max said

Remus nodded, "Harry will never forget. In the coming year please make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. I know he's a prodigy in magic, is insanely smart, and is receiving some sort of combat training." Max got that deer in headlights look while Cedric looked confused, "I'm not stupid, I can see the changes in Harry in the past two years. How he sits in the corner of a room with his back to a wall, he scans his surroundings almost constantly, he actually reminds me a bit of Moody. And the fact that he started gaining all that muscle before his Quidditch career even started."

Remus collected his thoughts and continued, "All I'm asking is that you keep an eye on him, he tends to have a blind spot when it comes to something that involves his parents. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Yeah sure, we'll look out for him." Max said, Cedric nodded in agreement.

Remus gave a small smile, "Thank you… Did you know Harry could travel by shadows like that?"

Max gave a laugh, "Yeah, but we only found out recently."

Cedric suddenly perked up, "Oh Mr. Lupin I just remembered, I was wondering if I could work here over the summer?"

"I don't see why not, I could use some extra help. But there's some paperwork you'd need to fill out, I'll go get it." Remus left the table

"I wonder what Harry's doing right now." Max wondered

"No idea, probably something destructive."

* * *

><p>Harry grunted as he hit the ground, his multiple cuts were slowly leaking blood.<p>

"I've never seen you this vicious." Mariah said seductively, "I like it, makes me a bit horny."

"Shut up and fight." Harry growled before he launched himself at her again. He punched and kicked viciously, there was no defense in his form. You couldn't blow off steam by blocking or dodging, offense was the only way to go.

"You've never sought me out before despite my numerous invites to a night in bed. What's changed in you?" Mariah asked as she dodged or blocked all of Harry's swings.

"Never mind what's changed, just fight me!" Harry growled and sent a lightning fast round kick at her head which she ducked under. He received two jabs to the stomach which sent him reeling back in pain.

"Even I know fighting doesn't solve everything, most of it but not everything. Just tell me what's bothering you." Mariah slowly walked forward, eyeing Harry carefully.

"It doesn't matter what's bothering me!" Harry launched himself at her again only to be flipped over her shoulder and into a tree. They were in a forest somewhere, Harry didn't know or care where the hell he was.

"It clearly does matter, your form is all over the place. You wouldn't have been flipped last week. You're being reckless, you have to be calm and in control when fighting." She lectured

Harry ignored her and got back to his feet and charged her again. It was usually much easier to take down a reckless opponent, but Harry began to overcharge his body enhancing magic. His blows became faster than the eye could see, his strength tripled in power, and Mariah realized this was getting out of hand. She had to stop him before he hurt himself. Easier said than done.

She tried to dodge his attacks but they were too fast, even for her. The first two punches that landed hit her radius and clavicle, breaking the two bones. Breaking a human's bones was easy, trying to break a couple millennia old vampire's bones, not so much. She ignored the pain, she'd dealt with far worse, but it was enough to distract her that his haymaker hit her dear in the sternum. She went flying through two tree trunks before she landed in a small stream.

Mariah slowly got up, it had been a very long time since she had been on the receiving end of such a strong blow. She got up and felt her shattered sternum, ouch. All of a sudden, she was being lifted out of the stream by her throat. Some invisible force was lifting her up, she looked down to see Harry holding his arm out in some weird imitation of star wars. This was a new trick.

Luckily, she didn't need to breath so Harry's chokehold didn't prevent her from talking, "You gonna try and kill me Harry?"

The pure rage on Harry's face lifted as he realized what he was doing, if she had been anyone else, they would have died. His arm went slack and Mariah dropped back into the stream.

"Sure sure, lets just drop her in the water and not lower her gently to the dry ground." Mariah said sarcastically as she walked over to Harry.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Now can you please tell me what's wrong before I beat your ass into the ground."

Harry sat down on the shore of the steam and stared out into it's shallow waters for a minute before he started talking, "Sirius Black escaped Azkaban." He finally bit out

Mariah looked honestly surprised at that she'd been in America the past month and hadn't heard anything out of Britan, "Really? Azkaban? No ones ever escaped. Those dementors are nasty things. The cold they create doesn't affect me but when you've lived as long as I have, they can bring up some bad experiences I'd rather forget." she said darkly, "Sirius Black was your Secret Keeper yes? Along with being your Godfather?"

Harry looked surprised she knew that much about him, "Yeah he was, he's the reason I don't have parents. Why my mother's a vegetable." He said bitterly

"Want me to kill him?" She asked completely serious

Harry gave a laugh, "No, if anyone's going to kill him it'll be me. I don't want any help in doing it."

"So you're going after him?"

Harry was silent, he didn't know that answer to that question.

Mariah picked up the conversation, "And Black escaping got you so angry that you needed to come fight with me? So angry that you lost control and overused your body enhancing? You'll be feeling that tomorrow by the way, make sure you drink lots of water and not perform magic of any kind for three days." She advised

"Yes I know. But it's not only Black escaping that has me angry." He said, "My work on my mother has been going nowhere. I've made absolutely no progress on finding a cure. All that stress was just building up and I guess the dam just broke." Harry confessed

"Have you ever tried asking others for help? I'm not that knowledgeable in magic, seeing as I can't perform any, but I know a lot about blood magic. Anything to do with blood I pretty much know about. That's what you think what happened to your mom right? Something to do with blood magic?"

"Honestly I never thought to ask." He'd been working alone for so long now that it never occurred to him to ask others for help. Sure he got books from Flamel and he went to Dumbledore once, but that was just for information.

"Ok, I'm willing to give this a shot. Here's everything I know so far…" Harry proceeded to tell her everything he knew about the Blood Ward. Mariah just sat there on the forest floor next to him, all the while nursing two broken bones and a shattered sternum. Harry needed someone to listen so she patiently listening to everything he had to say.

"Your theories are sound and I can't think of a reason why your mother shouldn't be up and about like Longbottom." She said once Harry was done explaining, "Except for one. Your father died to save your mother, so the ward immediately took effect on her. But then your mother tried to die to save you. It's all in the intent, that's how the ward works. Your mother should have died and the blood ward would have become in effect over you, but since she had the ward over her… I don't know what the outcome would be, something like this can't be tested. Maybe the ward split and tried to protect the two of you, leaving the protection over your mother less powerful. Maybe it wasn't powerful enough to to protect her and the killing curse affected her in some way that hasn't been discovered yet. Try doing a little research into soul magic, the killing curse is the most basic form of soul magic so maybe if you researched that branch of magic a bit, you can figure out what affects the curse may have left."

Harry considered this, it wasn't a bad idea. It would require more books from Flamel, some very illegal books that could get him thrown in Azkaban. No one could know, there weren't any known practitioners of soul magic for a reason. It was pretty much illegal worldwide.

"Alright I'll do it. It can't hurt."

"Good, now go home and get some rest." She gave him a kiss on the cheek which caused him to notice her arm was bent at the wrong angle and her chest was indented from where he punched her.

"Mariah! Oh shit I'm sor-" His apology was stopped by her putting a finger on his lips

"Shut up, I've done worse to you. I'll be fine. Couple pints of blood and I'll be up and about ready to kick your ass to kingdom come."

"Good luck with that!" Harry shot back

She snorted, "Please, I could have ended that fight at any time. I haven't shown you every trick in my book yet Harry dear. I just chose to end it the nonviolent way."

"Well I haven't shown you all my secrets either."

"Speaking of which, when did you learn wandless magic?" She asked genuinely curious

"Just now I guess, it was kinda accidental. I wasn't thinking about it when I did it."

"Learn to incorporate that into your fighting style. Get good enough to use it consistently and I'll start pulling out some of the stops."

"You mean you've been going easy on me?" Harry gulped

"Not easy, just not as hard as I can." She began to sink into her shadow, "Go home, get some rest. You're going to feel like absolute shit tomorrow."

%#%#%#%#%#%#%#

Remus was a little worried. Harry hadn't come home the day he stormed off. Remus waited until one A.M. until he gave up and went to bed. Harry would come back when he was ready. Remus just hoped he didn't do something stupid like go after Sirius.

Currently, Remus was on his way up to Harry's attic room. They were going to sit down and have a talk, he may give Harry a lot of leeway but there was a point when Remus needed to put his foot down. Magically transporting himself somewhere when he had just found out that his parent's betrayer was on the loose was one of the times Remus would have to discipline Harry. In what way, he didn't know yet.

Climbing the spiral staircase, He opened the trapdoor and searched the room. The blinds were shut and he could only see the outlines of things. With a flick of his wand, the blinds were ripped open and light poured into the room. A tired groan came from the bed.

"Maximus, if that's you I will fucking kill you!" Harry growled from beneath his blanket.

"It's not Max it's me. We need to talk."

"Can we do this later?" Harry begged

"No."

Harry sighed and sat up in bed. He looked terrible. He had deep bags under his eyes, his hair was a mess, and he smelled like he took a bath in sweat.

"What happened to you?" Remus asked worried

"Don't worry about it."

"But I do worry about it! I worry about you!" Remus yelled, "You stormed off with your parent's betrayer on the loose. I was worried you'd do something stupid and try to track him down! Not to mention you went off to fight some giant deadly snake! Do you ever think I don't care what you do? Harry, you could have died. You're the most important thing to me and I couldn't…" He couldn't finish

Harry was silent for a second before speaking, "I'm not stupid, I was going after Black. I wa-"

"But I didn't know that!" Remus raged, "Do you not trust me? Not trust me enough to let me know you've been getting combat training?!"

Harry looked startled, "Don't look so surprised, I've known you your whole life. I know when I'm being lied to. And I've seen how you've changed. Harry, you walk around like you're constantly about to be attacked. I've seen how you look when something surprises you, it reminded me of the war, you looked ready to pull your wand out and start fighting when that guy broke his cup a couple days ago. You'll end up like Moody if you keep this up."

"It's not that I didn't trust you, it's that I think you'd make me stop."

"Of course I'd try and make you stop!" Remus raged, "I don't want the son of my best friends to turn into someone like Moody! Hell, I don't want MY son turning into someone like that!"

Harry was shocked, Remus had never called him his son. Harry didn't know how to feel about it, Remus was essentially his father. They'd grown apart a bit though, ever since he'd started Hogwarts.

"I'm not going to stop you though, if learning to fight is really that important to you." Remus said shocking Harry even more, "I probably couldn't even if I wanted to. All I ask is that you tell me before you do something dangerous."

"I… I promise." Harry got out

"Good… Now you're grounded for a week."

Harry tiredly collapsed back into his bed, "Fine by me."

"What did happen to you last night?"

"I overstressed my body to the point of pure exhaustion. I'll be in bed for a few days." Harry's voice was muffled though his pillow

"Do I even want to know how you did it?"

"Nope."

Remus sighed, "I'll have Mipsey bring you your meals."

**AN/: Sorry for basically being gone for over half a year. I've been pretty busy and just kept on procrastinating it to the point where I almost gave up on it. But then my school issued us new laptops (I used to type this all out on an Ipad) for this year and I just got mine last thursday. I basically cranked out the last half of this chapter since then. So you'll be getting a lot more regular updates from me. As always write plenty of reviews and let me know of any grammatical errors. Signing off.**


	13. Chapter 13

"I can't believe you actually fucking got it." Max said in amazement/creeped the fuck out.

"I said that I would."

"Yeah but… I thought you were joking! I didn't think you'd actually follow through on it."

"Maximus, I never joke."

Max didn't reply and went back to staring at the object of his attention. Remember when Harry killed the Basilisk and then later said that he'd have the head stuffed and animated? Yeah well, he wasn't joking. The gigantic head was currently mounted above the fireplace in Harry's room. The whole thing jutted about six feet out from the wall, and had a diameter of about three feet. It's hide was that same dark green with scales the size of Max's hand. The head had a hole in it where Harry stabbed it, this only added to the creepiness factor as it gave the snake a Frankenstein's Monster vibe.

It's eyes remain the same vibrant yellow but had thankfully lost their killing power. It still didn't give Max any assurances however, seeing as how the thing's eyes would follow his around the room and hiss menacingly at him, revealing those giant fangs that had almost killed Harry.

"Can you still understand it?" Max asked from where he stood as far away as possible on the side of the room.

"HIS name is George, and yes I can understand him. Doesn't remember anything from his time in the chamber though, he was essentially born in Switzerland where I had him stuffed." Harry said from behind his ancient looking leather bound book. He pulled out a bag of snausages and tossed one to George who caught it nimbly and swallowed in one quick gulp.

"Why are you feeding it? And where does the food go?"

"I'm feeding HIM because he says he's hungry. As to where the food goes, I have no idea." Harry tossed up another snausage to George.

"Would you ask him why he hates me," Max asked as George gave a particularly vicious snarl, "He's really starting to scare me."

"He can smell your fear, just don't be afraid of him." Harry said nonchalantly.

"That's not gonna happen."

"He'll always hate you then. Now why did you come up here?" Harry asked

Max had almost forgotten why he'd come up in the first place, George kinda distracted him. "Yeah, I kinda need the start up funds for my potions thing. I need to buy some mass production cauldrons, the startup ingredients, order and design some pamphlets, rent out a couple hundred owls to send out the pamphlets, and do you think you could purchase some house elves so I don't have to be brewing all the time, I'd have no idea where to get them."

"I want twenty-five percent of all profits." Harry said without looking up

"Fifteen, you won't even be doing any of the brewing."

"Twenty, I'm going to be charming everything with preservation charms and none of that stuff is exactly cheap." Harry countered

"I'll meet you in the middle at seventeen and you can ask me to brew any potion for you, free of charge even if 'Practical Potions' doesn't work out." Harry seemed to be considering that so Max upped the ante, "And I'll stop bitching about Shannon being gone."

"Deal." Harry said immediately, it was something Max had done constantly ever since the Foursythe's had moved to France.

"Sweet! Uh, how do I get money from your vault?" Max has no idea how banks worked and didn't know if Harry had to be there or if he needed his signature or what.

Harry opened his desk drawer and withdrew his vault key, he tossed it to Max. "Here, show this to the goblins and tell them 'Big Mac'."

Max laughed, "That's your entrance password?"

"I was put on the spot." Harry defended

"Anyway, thanks for this."

Harry shrugged, "It has the chance to produce a fair bit of profit, plus it wouldn't leave the slightest dent in my bank account."

"How much have you made anyway?" Max asked, the stuff he needed was expensive, and for it not to even matter to Harry…

"Well before Quidditch, the Potters had around 750,000 Galleons. And my last bank statement was around three and a half million galleons (AN:/ Around 35,245,000 US Dollars or 17,500,000 pounds). So I've made around three million galleons.' Harry said effectively shocking Max.

"Holy shit." Max said stunned

"Yup, now leave me and George alone. We have things to discuss."

Max didn't question what Harry and a mentally month old basilisk had to talk about, he didn't care at the moment. He was still effectively stunned at how utterly rich his friend was. He left for Gringotts.

Harry kept on reading for another five minutes before closing his book angrily. He'd dealt with complicated subjects before, but soul magic was something else. Flamel hadn't even asked why he needed as many books on soul magic as he could procure. It is one of the most volatile pieces of magic there is and the most illegal. But when you've lived for over six centuries, you'd probably stop caring about laws and whatnot.

From the total of twenty six ever known practitioners of soul magic, Flamel was only able to get his hands on one of their journals. And that was saying something for a man with his kind of connections. The journal's owner, Vladimir Trithritski, was well and truly mad. Attended Durmstrang for five years before he was kicked out for kidnapping another student and performing tests on him. Born in 1896, he was killed in 1952 by a team of aurors that were searching for him seeing as how he was one of Grindelwald's inner circle.

The man's notes were almost impossible to follow, he jumped from subject to subject like a hyperactive puppy moved from toy to toy. Only the toys were ideas on how to use the human soul to create an explosion large enough to level a city. There were more ideas on the human soul of course, but that is the one that appears the most often. It's the idea that Grindelwald was most interested in.

Trithritski had theories about absorbing another's soul to extend one's own life, about removing the soul from the body without killing it, warping the soul so that the recipient feels no remorse for any atrocities they might commit, switching souls with another person, and, worst of all, completely obliterating someone's soul. Wizards don't have a religion anymore, they used to but as time progressed it was found that the so called 'gods' were just really powerful wizards who proclaimed themselves gods. Yet despite this, most wizards still believed in an afterlife of some sort. And all this hinged on the human soul, to completely obliterate a person's soul is worse than killing them, there is no chance of an afterlife when the soul is gone.

Trithritski's Journal is truly a monstrous book, it's a good thing that Voldemort never got his hands on it. Harry had no doubt that Voldy had practiced some kind of soul magic, but this was Trithritski's life's work. Trithritski was decades ahead of anyone in soul magic, if Voldemort got his hands on the journal… Harry didn't even want to think about it.

Anyway, Harry wasn't much closer to know what happened to his mother. But he was starting to know how the soul worked. And progress is progress, no matter how small.

Harry got off his bed, he'd had enough of Trithritski's mad drabbles for one day and it was lunch. He headed downstairs to the kitchens, hoping Alfred still had some of that chicken pot pie left. He immediately regretted that decision, it almost seemed like there was an England National game in Marauders. Fans upon fans crowded inside the common area, most were wearing jerseys with Potter stitched on the back, some were holding quaffles and pictures of him doing some kind of juke or deek. This is not good.

"Look! It's him!"

"Potter! Sign my quaffle!"

"Harry can we get a picture?!"

"Please go out with me!"

Harry had no intention of doing any of the above. He decided that he'd have to skip the pot pie and just grab a protein shake from his locker, he had practice in an hour anyway. He quickly did the same trick he did at Platform 9 ¾, creating a path between him and the fireplace. Flooing out a few seconds later and promising to find whoever reminded the public that he lived at Marauders and make them pay.

* * *

><p>"Who told the papers where Harry lives?" Tonks asked from the counter where Remus was serving her. There were girls and fans everywhere!<p>

Remus shrugged, "We did have that article written about Marauders about four years ago, anyone who remembered that article could have let it slip to the press. At least it's good for business."

"That's an understatement, I've never seen Knockturn Alley this full of people during the day! Actually theres not that much of a difference between Diagon and Knockturn anymore, every time I go on patrols, it looks a little bit nicer."

Remus knew that statement was true, Knockturn had been cleaning up it's act lately with all the new customers that Harry's fame was bringing in. There was a lot less litter on the streets, the hags started to sell things for the shop owners instead of just hanging around the streets, and the best part was that the stench that hung around the alley was beginning to dissipate.

"Is that why you're here? Are you patrolling my business?" Remus said jokingly.

"Actually yes I am." She said causing Remus to look up at her in a start, "Officially I'm supposed to just be in the general area, this is the place where the most aurors are stationed. This is the most likely spot for a terrorist attack, with all the people and all. The auror's have been doing almost constant patrols, Knockturn had it's fair share of attacks back during You-Know-Who's wreign. The Ministry's worried about some former supporters would want to stir up trouble. "

"Should I be worried?" Remus asked.

Tonks took another bite of her sandwich while she shook her head negative, "There hasn't been any terrorist attacks since you got those werewolf laws repealed. The only thing I might be worried about is the Ministry sticking their noses around here."

"Why? What's happening?"

"Just some bureaucratic purebloods wanting to keep some power. They don't like what you've done with the werewolf population, werewolves used to be completely beneath them but now they are getting rights and stepping up."

"But that's a good thing!" Remus nearly shouted drawing some attention from the customers.

"I know it is." Tonks backed up, realizing Remus was taking this the wrong way, "What I'm trying to say is that you've drawn attention to your self and so has Harry."

"Well that's kinda hard to avoid." Remus grumbled, Harry was considered one of the best quidditch players in the world and is the best Chaser. With the highest number of goals and the second highest amount of assists (the number one spot being taken by the teammate that passes to Harry the most), Harry was making his way into the record books.

"Tell me about it. It's like one day I was teaching the kid how to duel and the next he's one of the most popular quidditch players globally." She said trying to lead Remus away from the topic of politics.

"They are undefeated, and no small part because of Harry." Remus said with pride.

"When's their next game anyway?" Tonks asked

"I think it's on-"

"Hey Tonks!" Max said when he saw her through the gaggle of fans.

Tonks smiled, "Hey Maxie! How's it going?"

"Good, just getting my own little potions business set up and… Say, your parents are like lawyers, right? They helped Harry and Remus with their trial case a few years back."

Tonks nodded her head, "Yeah. Well officially Dad's the lawyer and Mom helps out with legal troubles and business forms. Why?"

"Do you think they could help me out with legitimizing this? I might be selling some potions that kid's parents might not appreciate and I'd like to have someone help me through the legal stuff." Max said.

"What wouldn't parents approve of? It's nothing addictive is it?" She'd seen the potion accident ward at St. Mungos, they handle all potion related injuries including overdose and withdrawal. Some of the afflicted looked terrible.

"No, course not. I'm thinking more along the lines of contraceptive potions." He said with a chuckle.

Tonks blinked owlishly, "Oh. Well you'd essentially be encouraging kids to be having sex and I can see why parents would be against that. But I remember my school days, we'd- I mean the other kids would just use the charm and take the risk." The charm worked about 90% of the time.

"We'd?" Max asked innocently.

"Shut up. So I had some fun back in Hogwarts, big deal. The point is is that I think my parents would be fine with helping you out."

"Great! Now I gotta go, it's my shift and Cedric over there is giving me the evil eye. I think he wants his break." It's true, Cedric seemed ready to drop from exhaustion and was glaring at Max to hurry up and take his turn.

"We are overworked, maybe I should hire more staff soon." Remus wondered aloud

"I wouldn't," Tonks said, "they'll all be gone when Hogwarts starts up again. Harry won't be here after all. Now when's his next game?"

"Next week actually, and I think Harry's still got some extra tickets to hand out."

* * *

><p>"Welcome quidditch fans, to what will be an exciting game between Germany and England! I am your host Eddie Chase!" The Announcer's voice rang over the thousands of cheering fans.<p>

"We'll start this match off with an opening lineup. First for Germany! At keeper we have Schlesinger, the German's chasers are the amazing trio of Steinhauser, Inov, and Cherk! The two roughhousing brutes themselves are at beaters, Dirk and Kafka! And last, but certainly not least, the third highest ranked seeker in the world, Inoven!" As Eddie called out their names, the German National Team flew out of their tunnel. A moving picture of each player's face showed up on a gigantic floating screen, each was decked out in their quidditch gear and nation's colors. They all even had their stats underneath their picture.

"And now the English! At starting Keeper we have the unstoppable James! England's chasers are the currently highest ranked trio in the world, ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for Cole, Young, aaaaaannnnnnnndddddd Potter!" The stands literally shook when Harry Potter's name was announced, he was obviously the favorite player. "Hold on folks! We've still got half the lineup left! At beaters, the two vicious vixens, Broadchest and Watson! And at England's seeker, the always reliable Shearer!" The crowd roared even louder than they did for Germany as the English took the pitch, each decked out in red and white.

"Go Harry!" Max cheered from one of the private boxes. This was awesome! He got to go to his first National Quidditch Match and he got to see his best friend play in said game! What could be better?

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Oh yeah, not having to sit next to Alastor Moody would have made the game a lot better. Harry had gotten them all tickets, them being Max, Remus, Cedric, and Tonks, to his game in Germany. The only problem was Tonks couldn't come unless Moody gave her the day off. So the two compromised, Moody turned out to be a huge fan of the sport and decided to 'tag along'.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Moody roared his magic eye spinning in it's socket.

It seemed that the ref agreed with Moody and blew his whistle to start the game. The two teams took their sides and the crowd came to a hush, the quaffle was launched into the air, causing the stands to once again break out into thunderous cheers.

"England immediately snags the quaffle! Young passes to Cole, back to Young, Young passes to- NO! Inov intercepts the pass! Inov is trying to take the quaffle by himself! He gets around Watson and lines up for his shot! He- NO! Potter steals the quaffle half way through Inov's wind up! Potter steaks across the pitch but Dirk and Kafka are giving him a good workout with their constant barrage of bludgers!"

"Come on! Where's his coverage! Broadchest stop lollygagging and cover Potter's ass!" Moody roared. He had already deafened Max's left ear, but now he was getting so rowdy that there was spittle flying out of his mouth.

"Potter narrowly dodges bludger but is now within shooting range! Potter Heads straight at Schlesinger! They're going to crash! NO! Potter veers off at the last sec- Young Scores! Right as Potter veered off he gave a backhanded pass to Young who had a wide open shot at the left hoop! What a play!"

Moody seemed to agree, "That a kid Potter! A little trickery I see! I like it! Look how he knew right where Young was! He was CONSTANTLY VIGILANT!"

"Moody you do know they can't hear you, right?" Toks asked. She seemed to be enjoying every minute of seeing her boss loosen up.

"Shut up! I'm trying to watch!"

Max didn't know what he found more annoying, Moody or the announcer. Well maybe they needed the announcer sometimes, there was just so much shit going on in a quidditch match that it was sometimes hard to keep track of it all. And the announcer was being broadcasted to every Wizard Wireless out there.

The game progressed in much the same way, England's Chasers were soundly trouncing Germany's but they were being worn down. The German's beater's were relentless, and the entire English team was taking a beating. Harry had taken a pretty hard hit to his back, it had almost knocked him off his broom. They needed to end this soon.

"Hey folks! Looks like Inoven's seen the snitch!" It was true, the German seeker was flying at top speed after what could only be the snitch. Shearer quickly followed however. Max looked at the score 210 - 70, if Germany caught the Snitch England would lose!

England's Chasers knew this and redoubled their efforts.

"Shearer is quickly gaining on Inoven! And Potter has the quaffle and looks to be going for a gauntlet run down the center of the pitch! Dirk and Kafka are setting in on Potter they are going for the Bulgarian Bounce Back!" Bulgarian Bounce Back is a beater strategy developed by Bulgaria. The beaters would hit the bludger back and forth all the while closing the distance between each other. The closer you got, the faster your reflexes needed to be in order to hit the bludger back. It required amazing team work, lots of practice, and stamina. If one messed up it could result in one of the beaters being seriously injured.

Harry was in trouble and had to change direction in order to avoid the incoming bludgers but it was no use. The speeding metal ball hit Harry's shoulder. Harry had to drop the quaffle in order to steady himself. Max saw that His arm was dangling uselessly at Harry's side but Harry didn't seem to mind as he took his arm and jerked it back into place.

"That a boy Potter! Play through the pain!" Moody roared although everyone else in the room was stunned. Did Harry just reset his dislocated shoulder and resume play like it was nothing? Yep, it definitely seemed like it.

Young had recovered the quaffle and shot a quick pass to Cole on the far side of the pitch. Cole jerked his arm back and released the quaffle with a grunt, it soared over the past the goal posts a failed attempt at a goal to be sure.

"What's this? Potter scooped up the quaffle a foot away from the ground and is now headed straight at Schlesinger! Potter shoots! He scores!"

"Yeah! Go Harry!" Cedric cheered, Harry threw that ball with the arm he'd dislocated. How the hell did he throw it accurately?

"Inoven seems to have lost sight of the snitch but looks determined to find it again! Cherk recovers the quaffle, and he gives an easy pass to Ino- NO! A stray bludger hits the quaffle out of the air! Young gives chase, he recovers! He heads straight for the hoops, takes his sho- NO! It's a drop pass to Potter! Potter swerves right, he shoots and scores! England 230 - 70! And it seems like they score just in time because Inoven has seen the snitch again! He goes into a steep dive! And comes out with the snitch! Ladies and gentlemen Inoven has caught the snitch! Final score: 230 - 220! Game: ENGLAND!"

* * *

><p>"Cedric! Check these bad boys out!" Max said excitedly<p>

"Max, they're just really big cauldrons."

"Really big cauldrons he says." Max said to the empty space beside him, "These are 60 gallon professional brewing vats, I could get like 3000 vials filled in one batch!"

"And you have 3000 vials?" Cedric questioned from his side of their shared room, he was flipping through Quidditch Monthly.

"... Shit, no. Well it looks like I've got a big order to send." Max stopped marveling over his cauldrons, "I've got to go talk to Harry for some money."

Cedric nodded his head absently, obviously too engrossed in his magazine to care much.

Max headed up to Harry's room. The spiral staircase was replaced with a circular platform that was was enchanted to recognize if you were allowed in or not. If it recognized you, it would float you through the trapdoor hole which had an illusion over it to make it look like a normal ceiling. Harry was very proud of his magic elevator.

"Hey Harry, I need to borrow your key ag…" Max drifted off at the sight in front of him. One would think that after a period of time, you'd think that you'd get used to walking in on Harry doing surprising things. Who ever thinks that can go fuck themselves.

All the furniture was gone and the window was no longer there, instead replaced by blank wall. None of this mattered however. Harry sat in the center of a runic circle, the runes carved into the floor pulsed a deep blue color in synch with Harry's breathing. His eyes were closed and his face was scrunched up in concentration. He was bare chested which showed off his slow healing bruises from the game to nights ago, Max had offered to make him a bruise salve but Harry denied saying that they didn't really bother him and that that they were reminders to learn to dodge better.

"Harry… whatcha doin?" Max asked, he didn't know what to do, did he try and wake Harry up, did he disturb the rune circle, or did he do nothing?

Doing nothing was never Max's strong suit, he decided not to disturb the runes but try and wake Harry up.

"Harry?... Harry?... Harry!..." He didn't move, Max pressed his wand to his throat "Sonorus… HARRY!" They learned the amplifying charm and the end of last year.

Harry eyes shot open and he gave a sharp gasp and started breathing heavily. The runes faded and the room went black since there was no light source. Max quickly lit his wand and pressed it to his throat.

"Quietus Harry are you okay?" Max asked, the dim light from his wand barely allowed him to see him, but he looked pretty shaken.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm… I'm good." He didn't sound too sure.

"What was that?" Max asked

Harry didn't answer for a few moments, "I can't tell you, you'd flip out on me. But thanks for waking me, I'd almost lost myself."

"Lost yourself? Harry what did you do?"

"Doesn't matter." He took out his wand and began to restore the room, "All that matters is that it worked, if only barely." He conjured a towel and dried the sweat off his body.

"But… Nevermind you won't tell me anyway. I need your key again, I forgot to order vials."

Harry seemed to be pulling all his shrunken furniture from his pockets, they grew to full size and floated back to their place in the room. Harry unshrunk George and pulled the key out of his mouth before floating him back to his place on the wall.

Harry noticed the look Max gave him, "What? It's the safest place in the room for it. Who in their right mind would put their hand in their? It's a shame Dumbledore wouldn't let me bring him to Hogwarts."

"Yeah, real shame. But thanks for this."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Another thing for you to thank me for. Dude! Dudette! Small Max!" Three house elves appeared, all wearing tiny white lab coats.

"Mister Harry Sir?" The one on the far left asked.

"Dude, Dudette, Small Max, this is Maximus." Harry introduced, "You're going to be helping him with his potions thingy."

Max gave Harry a 'what the hell' look, "My 'potions thingy' is a soon to be official business. And what's up with their names? Small Max?"

The elves looked a bit offended by that but before they could say anything Harry answered, "They're from one of my contacts in America, California to be exact, he runs a sort of… center for house elves. He's kinda a surfer and says dude a lot, not that there is anything wrong with your names guys. Dude and Dudette are twins and Small Max's name isn't Small Max. It's just Max, but we couldn't get the two of you confused now, so I just added that little title in there for him. Say hi Maximus."

"Uh hi Dude, Dudette, and uh Small Max." They said hello cheerfully to him, his former comment completely forgotten.

"We could call him More Intelligent Max or Better Looking Max if you prefer."

"No, no Small Max is fine."

Small Max looked delighted by this, "It will be a pleasure working with you Mister Maximus Sir, do yous have any work for us yet." Dude squeaked.

"Yeah, I uh, have some ingredients in my room that I just ordered. They're not sorted yet, do you think you guys could do that?"

They all gave an excited squeal at their first assignment before popping away.

"What was up with their little lab coats?" Max asked

Harry shrugged, "I conjured them, we couldn't just have them running around in mismatched clothing. They know that clothing is a sign of freedom, but as long as you tell them before you give them the cloths, they won't be freed."

"I'm still not that alright with the whole slavery thing." Max said, "Before the Foursythes, my family had house elves sure, but I barely remember them. The Foursythes never had house elves and kinda raised me to be against the idea."

"Just don't treat them wrong, they'll like you and it will feel less like slavery. I mean I just gave Mipsey a shrunken Potter jersey and she loves it. So just treat them like they are… close employees I guess."

"Yeah well it wasn't like I was going to make them punish themselves, I'm just uncomfortable."

"Well get comfortable, I invested money in you and I don't want it going to waste just because you feel bad." Harry then collapsed on his bed and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Harry decided to shadow travel directly into the Hogwarts Express this year. The press had been hounding him for any kinds of rumors or personal information. And his oh so loving fans had taken to regularly staying at Marauders to try and catch a glimpse of him. His room was now warded against invaders and his windows were now tinted. He'd found a fangirl hiding in his closet and a reporter disillusioned on a broom outside his window. The girl had received a stunning spell and was deposited in the shadiest part of Knockturn Alley while the reporter received a quaffle to the face thrown from his window. He'd gotten a black eye and a broken ankle when he fell off his broom but he'd still gotten the shot.<p>

It's was kinda funny actually, the magazine the guy worked for published the picture of Harry's annoyed face looking out the window, and then a speeding quaffle coming right at you, followed by the fast approaching ground. Remus got the picture framed and hung on the wall.

"I'll never get used to that." Max said as he shook off the after effects of shadow travel.

Harry glanced over at him from where he collapsed on the compartment seat, "You're the one who insisted on coming."

"I didn't want to be alone." he protested, "And why take an uncomfortable floo ride when I can take an equally uncomfortable frolic through the shadows with my best friend?"

"Because I could ditch your ass in Afghanistan if I wanted to." Shadow travel didn't affect him as much anymore, he could pretty much travel anywhere on earth when he wanted to. He'd been doing it a lot in order to avoid the quidditch fans and reporters.

"You'd come back eventually and I love the desert."

"No you don't, no one does. It's dry, hot, and full of sand. It would suck massive cock."

Max thought about that for a second, "Fair enough. Please don't leave me in Afghanistan."

Harry snorted and pulled out Trithritski's Journal and a Journal of his own. He'd been trying to translate Trithritski's jumbled mess of thoughts into something that was at least a little bit organized. His little incident in his room that Maximus had walked in on had proven as much. He'd been trying to find his soul. According to Trithritski, it was the first step to performing any type of soul magic. In order to affect another's soul or your own, one had to first know how to control it and access it. But the insane bastard had put the part about how to wake up from the trance on a page about 67 pages away from the one that describes the ritual. Go figure.

Despite the minor setback of learning to awaken from the trance, the ritual had gone off without a hitch. Harry had gotten a glimpse of his soul and never had he ever felt like he knew himself better than he now did. He'd seen his faults, his flaws, his good aspects, his deepest desires, and much more. Basically everything that Harry was, he saw. And now, he had complete clarity. He had no illusions as to who he was or what he wanted. He's Harry Fucking Potter, badass extraordinaire, greatest wizard of his generation and any soon to come, he hates anyone who he's not close to, and only wants to better himself and to see his mother awaken. There were no more distractions in his life, he knows who he is.

Cedric found them some time later after the train was underway, they talked about the usual; quidditch, school, dead basilisks, and girls. And although Harry didn't have much opinion about the last, he did offer up which girls he thought were idiotic and stupid. All of them.

"Oh, I almost forgot to show you these." Max pulled a pamphlet out of his trunk, "I just got the pamphlets this morning!" He handed it to Harry, Cedric read over Harry's shoulder.

The background was green and had a drawing of a smoking cauldron, a cutting knife, and various ingredients littered around it. The name was written above in big red letters:

Surprisingly Ingenious Potions

Just a SIP and all your troubles are gone!

Harry opened it up:

No longer feel hampered or distressed over frivolous things such as zits, rashes, scars, bruises or lack of protection, we have the cure to your ails for the cheapest price, guaranteed!

De-Zitter draught – 1G

Are you getting ready to ask out that 'special someone' only to realize you have a horrible zit marring your beautiful or handsome features? Worry not! We here at SIP guarantee that, and for a small fee, the De-Zitter draught will fix that problem for you in no time at all!

Anti-Rash Tonic – 2G 4S

Having problems with cheap brooms causing vicious chafing and leaving rashes? Are you uncomfortable showing your body off proudly due to pesky and unattractive rashes? You needn't worry; SIP is at your service with this cheap and effective potion! Simply apply to the affected area and whamo! Good bye rash. And not only is it cheap, it is good for multiple uses!*

Super Scar Vanisher – 1G 10S

Have you ever been in a dangerous situation, and the only thing you have to show for it is an unnatural and hideous scar? With the Super Scar Vanisher, all you need to do is apply a small amount to either side of the scar and it will vanish right before your eyes!**

The De-bruiseifier – 3G

Got in a fight and need to remove the evidence? The De-bruiseifier will remove those ugly disfigurements from any part of your body in a matter of minutes!

The 'Happy Ending' tonic 1G 15S

Are you planning a special evening with that special someone, only to have he or she back out because they're worried about the repercussions? If so, this is the potion for you! We guarantee eight hours of absolute safety with this ultimate contraceptive!***

Custom Brews - ?G

You have a particular potion that is not on this list that you urgently need? Send the name of the potion to the P.O. box listed below and we'll reply to you within twenty-four hours whether or not we can brew it for you and the cost!

This is solely dependant on the size of the rash*

Does not work with Cursed Scars or Scars inflicted by magic**

Yes, we mean unprotected sex***

A fee of 5S will be charged for our speedy reply

"There's more terms and conditions and things like that on the back." Max added

"SIP?" Cedric asked.

Max gave a sheepish smile, "You have no idea just how long it took me to find an acronym for that."

"But SIP? You couldn't have thought of a better one throughout your whole summer vacation? " Harry asked as he continued to read the back.

"Hey, if you can think of something better, be my guest. Besides it's short, sweet, and to the point. And I already had the order put in so that these will fly out tomorrow, no changing it now."

"Are these just flying out to Hogwarts or are they going out to other schools too?"

"I don't do things in halves Cedric, these are going out to all schools in Europe."

Cedric raised an eyebrow, "And just how many schools are there?"

"39." Harry answered, he was done with the pamphlet and went back to his books.

Cedric got wide eyed, "Really? I never really thought there would be much more than Hogwarts and Beauxbatons."

"Well there's 45 countries in Europe, not counting the ones that we for some reason share with Asia." Harry continued, "And each country would kinda want it's own magic school, and the ones that don't just go to a school in a neighboring country."

"I miss Shannon." Max said depressed the mention of Beauxbatons had brought up thoughts of her.

Harry's head shot up from his book, "Nuh uh. We agreed, no more bitching about Shannon being gone."

"Sorry, it's just I miss her so much." Max said dreamily.

"That counts as bitching."

Suddenly, the train lurched. One of their trunks fell to the floor and the jelly beans that Max had been munching on spilled to the floor.

"What the hell?" Max said rubbing his head, the trunk had clipped him on the way down.

"Did we hit something?" Cedric wondered.

"We'd have to have hit something pretty big for us to stop like that." Harry said.

Cedric peered out the window. He couldn't see anything, it was raining too hard. Suddenly, the lights went out and the three of them began to see their breath.

"Why the hell is it so cold?" Max said shivering.

Harry peered outside their compartment and saw many other students doing the same. He began to hear a faint screaming in his head and images began to flash across his eyes; the night his parents were attacked, the first fight he had with Mariah, fighting the basilisk. All his worst memories. There was only one thing he could think of that could cause this.

He applied his occlumency and the images began to fade. He glance back at Cedric and Max who were both deathly pale.

"Stay here." he commanded, they nodded their heads affirmative.

"Everyone back in you compartments!" Harry commanded. Some of the older students looked at him funny, who was he to tell them what to do? "NOW!" Harry hiss with venom, allowing some of his Parselmouth ability to bleed through. Everyone quickly closed their doors after that.

Harry waited for the dementor to come, what else could it be? The cold, the bad memories, and the fact that one of their prisoners had recently escaped. They must be searching the train for him. Harry used his sixth sense to feel where it was, two train cars down and headed his way. He'd never done the patronus charm in the presence of a dementor before, let hop his practice pays off.

When he first saw it, it was exactly what the book said it would look like. Floating, ripped black coat hanging off it's skeletal frame, and a hood that was completely shadowed underneath. It was impossible to see it's face if it had one at all.

Harry thought of what little memories he had of his mother, the good times with Remus, and all the times Max had made a fool of himself.

"Expecto Patronum!" He yelled and a glowing, silver lioness burst from his wand. The dementor backed away, seemingly unable to be in it's presence. Harry urged the lion to attack and it did with pleasure, its claws tore at the dementors cloak but before it could hit anything solid, the demon fled.

And suddenly it was over, the lights came back on, the chilly atmosphere left, and the memories stopped hammering away at his occlumency. Harry looked at his patronus, it had been surprisingly easy. Occlumency must help a lot because he didn't have to witness his bad memories as much. Harry rested his hand on the lioness' head.

"Thanks Mum." The lioness rubbed herself against Harry's legs before dissipating. One might think that Lily would be represented by a doe since James would obviously be a stag. This is false, Lily was passionate, brave, ferocious, and hot tempered. But she was loving and caring as well, there was nothing she wouldn't do for her family. She was the exemplary Gryffindor.

Kids were beginning to peek their heads out their compartment doors, many of the younger ones gaping at him. Rumors would already start circling; 'Harry Potter vanquished a demon!' many would probably say. Most wouldn't even know it was a dementor until someone smart actually told them what happened.

He got back into his compartment before any of them could say anything. Cedric and Max still looked shaken up but were fine overall.

"Harry, was that a dementor?" Cedric asked. Harry nodded and pulled some chocolate out of his trunk, he handed some to each of them and took a few bites himself.

Max just held onto his chocolate, he didn't feel like eating. "I- I didn't think it would be that bad. I've heard stories of what they were like but they didn't do them justice."

"Eat the chocolate, it really helps." Harry said

Max grudgingly took a bite and was surprised at how much better he felt. "That dementor," He said, "It was searching for Black. Right?"

"Yes." Harry said quietly.

Max and Cedric looked at each other, they agreed to stay as far away from the topic of Sirius Black as they could. But with dementors now on Hogwarts grounds actively looking for the guy, it'll be kinda hard to avoid the topic.

"So uh, do you think you could let me into the chamber tomorrow?" Max asked trying to change the topic, "I need to get some basilisk parts. I brought some home with me over the summer but those are gone and the rest are still in the chamber."

"Sure." Harry said before going back to his books for the rest of the ride to school.

* * *

><p>A week into the first semester and Harry was already bored. School work was never an issue, Mariah hadn't come to fight with him yet, Maximus hadn't done anything stupid yet, and his private studies have been going slow. The only thing that was of any noteworthy was that Cedric had gotten a girlfriend. Some chick from Gryffindor that was barely passing her classes, but she was relatively hot, so Harry didn't make too much fun of Cedric. He was getting some afterall.<p>

So, in his free time, Harry decided to take care of some unfinished business that he'd left on the Seventh floor. Harry paced the three required times in front of Barnabas Barby while thinking of what he wanted. The door materialized and he stepped through.

It was just as he remembered, giant stone pillars in disarray, the golden gravel covered the floor, and the sun shined brightly in the sky. He was back at the Parthenon, one of the places he fought Mariah. Harry had realized that he had severely neglected his magical fighting while his physical fighting excelled. He wanted to rectify this.

"Give me someone to fight that has just as much fighting skill as I do." Harry said aloud.

Almost immediately, Harry had to duck underneath an incoming fireball. He hadn't thought that it'd work that fast. He used his magic to speed himself up so that he was almost a blur. Where was his target?

He heard a loud whip like crack and he immediately ducked slid on the loose gravel. A thin golden wire passed just inches from his face. Maybe he should have made sure that the room couldn't hurt him before starting the fight… Eh, he dealt with worse.

He started to return fire at whomever it was he was facing, he couldn't quite tell yet. His opponent moved just as fast as he did and was too blurred out for Harry to get a good read on him. Harry tried a move he'd been practicing through the summer. Harry clapped his hands together causing a wave of force to spread out in an arch in front of him. His opponent was blasted off his feet, allowing Harry to get a good look at him.

It was… well him. He looked exactly like Harry did now, right down to the clothes. The only difference was that his doppelganger's eyes were pitch black, not just the iris but the whites too.

"Well aren't you a good looking fellow." Harry said with a smirk. His clone mirrored his expression. "Let's finish this." Harry said before launching another attack.

* * *

><p>"Hey Cedric,can I talk you for a sec?" Max asked. Cedric, was a little busy at the moment. His girlfriend, Melanie, was currently kissing his neck. Max saw this and didn't care.<p>

Cedric glared at his friend, "Uhhh, Max? A bit busy at them moment."

"Yeah, how yad doin Melanie? Cedric this has to do with that summer 'project' that you were apart of." Max said discreetly trying to talk to Cedric about SIP, he didn't want the word getting out that he was incharge of it all.

"Max, we- Mel don't touch me there! Max we didn't do a summer project."

"The 'potions' that you 'invested' in."

"Max what are you- Ah! Mel that's a new one! Max, what are you talking about!" Melanie was now grinding in Cedric's lap. She really didn't seem to care that Max was talking to her object of interest.

Max didn't know if Melanie was making Cedric act so stupid, or if he was really just that dense. "Dammit Cedric! SIP!"" He whispered so that it just sounded like a harsh whisper and Melanie wouldn't hear it.

"Oh! That, what about it?" Now he understands…

"Well I just got a bank statement and I was thinking that you'd want to know how much you made."

Melanie pulled away from Cedric, "Wait, Ced you were making money?" She asked crossly, "You said you were broke when I asked about that necklace in Teen Witch Weekly!"

Cedric suddenly turned gay and got up from his girlfriend, "Max! What about our summer project did you wanna talk about?" He threw his arm around Max's shoulders and walked him down the corridor, away from his angry girlfriend.

"I got my first bank statement from SIP, and guess how much we made in our first two weeks?" He said with excitement.

"I dunno, a hundred galleons?"

Max gave a laugh, "Try four hundred!"

Cedric stumbled in shock, "That's more than you paid for all the ingredients!"

Max smirked, "Yep! And that was just in the first couple weeks. Think about how much we'll make by the end of the year!"

"We wouldn't have to work at Marauders anymore! I could buy that new Nimbus!"

"I wouldn't want to move from Marauders, I like it there. But yeah, we'll be able to buy all the stuff we want. Drakon's Blood, Hellhound Hair, Crushed Dragon's Teeth! There's so much I could buy now. And you could get a little necklace for a little lady." Max teased.

"Shut up."

"Do you even like her?"

"I like… parts of her." He said sheepishly.

"Yeah, she's pretty hot. You get props for that."

"Thanks. Where are we headed anyway?" Max was leading him up tons of flights of stairs.

"I was going to go tell Harry about SIP too. He said something about being on the 7th floor."

"No one ever goes up there though, there's nothing there."

"There obviously is something up there, else Harry wouldn't bother going up there."

The phrase 'speak of the devil, and he shall appear' must have some credibility because they spotted Harry just round the corner. His hair was singed, his clothing was ripped. he was limping, and one of his shoes were missing.

"Harry, what the hell happened to you?" Cedric asked. Max, unlike Cedric, had seen Harry in worse shape but was surprised that Harry hadn't conjured himself some presentable clothes.

"I was… I was in a fight." He sounded exhausted.

"Who did you fight?" Max asked.

"It was… Myself?" Harry seemed like he was asking himself that question.

"That doesn't make sense. But it looks like you kicked your ass." Max joked and then frowned, "Why don't you fix your clothes and heal yourself."

Harry combed his hand through his singed hair, "I couldn't pull off a lumos right now, I'm too tired."

"Oh yeah, I got my first bank statement. Just made 423 galleons!"

"Congrats. 72 of those galleons are mine by the way, as per my 17%." Harry said

"Did you just calculate that in your head?" Cedric asked impressed.

"Yep. Now I'm going to our room to sleep." Harry tiredly trudged back up those godforsaken moving stairs.

**AN:/ Sorry the update took longer than I said. I basically just write when I feel like it and more often than not I don't feel like it. But I got it done and I hope you like it. You may have noticed that I recycled somethings like Quidditch player names and the Pamphlet but thats just some small stuff that hardly matters if you ask me. Write lots of reviews and give me some ideas to write about.**


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